


joy to you and me

by philindas



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 25 days of Christmas challenge, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-04 20:59:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 29,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5348318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/philindas/pseuds/philindas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Melinda May, would you do me the honor of pretending to be my girlfriend for the week of the holidays?” he asked, and Melinda’s eyes widened as her lips parted, shock crossing her features.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

> This is a few days late (work this week has been literal hell, hence why I'm posting this on the 3rd of December and not the 1st as planned), but I'm going to do my best to do the 25 days of Christmas challenge this year! This will be one connected story with each chapter centering around a different prompt. It's a total au, and philinda-centric, though other pairings will pop up! I'm hoping for a chapter a day, but don't hold me too it. Title from Joy to the World!

Phil Coulson was content with his life. He owned a blossoming bookstore, lived in a decently-sized apartment, spent every weekend with his best friend (and love of his life, not that she knew that), and almost had enough money to buy the cherry red convertible he passed every day on the way to work.

Coulson’s Corner had been open for nearly three years- he’d made an investment upon graduating with his business degree, and the small, downtown Boston corner bookstore had grown even more than he’d anticipated. He’d hired a family friend who had recently moved to the city to help him run it, Natasha Romanoff (who brought along her clumsy but helpful boyfriend, Clint Barton, most days), and she in turn had hired a few kids to work the night shifts- Jessica Drew and Peter Parker were good kids, and he knew the store was in good hands even when he wasn’t there.

When he wasn’t at work, he was more than likely spending time with his aforementioned best friend- Melinda May. They’d met at SHIELD University, in an 8 am kickboxing class, and had been inseparable since. She’d moved to Boston after graduation once he’d decided to make his store there, and she’d found a job at a local gym- she was saving money until she could open her own tai chi study. She helped out at the bookstore whenever she could, though, and Phil couldn’t deny that he liked watching her behind the counter, glasses perched on the top of her head and a smile on her face whenever a little girl asked her for a book recommendation.

He’d been half in love with Melinda since the moment they met, but he’d always been too shy to say anything- instead watching as she went through a string of boyfriends, each one worse than the last. Upon arriving in Boston she’d started dating a psych student who was getting his doctorate at BU; Phil liked him well enough, and was happy Melinda was happy, but a part of him still wished he’d had a chance to tell her how he felt. He’d gotten overwhelmed with opening the store and trying to deal with his father’s recent death, and Melinda had slipped through his fingers once again.

“Yo, Director,” Phil looked up at Natasha’s voice, nose wrinkling at the nickname she’d given him within weeks of working together. “Wanna share with the class what’s going through the big brain of yours?”

 “I have to go home for Christmas,” he answers, and Natasha raises an eyebrow, flipping the closed sign on the door and locking it.

“And that’s a problem because…?” she asked, moving to tidy a stack of books. “You love your family.”

“I may have given the impression that I was seeing someone and now my mother has basically threatened to disown me if I come home alone,” he admitted sheepishly, and Natasha laughed in his face, bending at the waist as her cheeks turned red. “Shut up, Nat.”

“Just ask Melinda,” Natasha suggests when she calms down, leaning back against the counter after letting Clint into the shop, letting him lounge in one of the chairs near the counter.

“Melinda has a boyfriend,” Phil answers with only a hint of bitterness, and Natasha rolls her eyes.

“Not since last week she doesn’t,” she informs him, and his eyebrow shoots up as he sits forward. “Andrew dumped her via text message before he left for that conference in Maui.”

“I offered to murder him,” Clint pipes up from his spot on the chair, feet propped up on the counter.

“And I offered to help, but you know Mel- likes to fight her own battles,” Natasha shrugged, pushing off the counter and lightly nudging Clint’s head. “It’s about time you told her how you felt, Coulson. You’ve been in love with her long enough.”

Phil doesn’t say anything, unwilling to verbally confirm or deny; Natasha pats his shoulder as she drags Clint out the door, the bell ringing cheerfully behind them as they exit. He sighs, going through the motions of finishing closing up the store; it’s nearly 11 when he finishes, but like clockwork, his phone rings just as he’s stepping into his apartment.

“Why didn’t you tell me you and Andrew broke up?” are the first words out of his mouth as he brings his phone to his ear, and he can practically _hear_ Melinda’s eye roll through the phone line.

“’Hi Melinda, how was your day?’ is how normal people start a conversation,” she replies, and he sighs, dropping his stuff on the table before flopping down on the couch.

“Hi Lin. How was your day?” he asks, lips curling upwards slightly at her soft laugh.

“It was good. And then my mother called,” he can hear the frown in her voice and he sits up, elbows digging into his knees. “Dad’s spending Christmas in Beijing and won’t be home, so going home for Christmas will just be me and Mom in that huge, chilly house.”

“Come down,” he says, and she hesitates momentarily, so he continues. “I’ll cook.”

“It’s almost eleven, Phil,” she says, and he lays on the bribery.

“I’ll make grilled cheese,” he replies, slightly singsong, dragging the last word out, and he hears the squeak of bedsprings before the calls cuts off. He laughs, shoving his phone into his back pocket and undoing the cuffs of his shirt, rolling them up his forearms. He pulls a frypan off the hook above the kitchen island, placing it on the burner to warm up as he grabbed bread, cheese, and butter, spreading them out on the counter.

Melinda doesn’t even knock, just opens the door and shuts it quietly behind her; Phil already has a glass of strawberry milk waiting for her on the breakfast bar. He catches her smile out of the corner of his eye as she sits, pulling the pink liquid towards her. He couldn’t stand the stuff, but it was Melinda’s favorite drink and so he traveled halfway across the city to the seemingly only store that sold it so he always had it in his fridge for her.

“I didn’t tell you about the break up because I knew you’d freak out,” she says quietly to his back as he faces the oven, focusing on the browning sandwich in front of him. “And it wasn’t a big deal to me; we’d only been dating for six months, and he honestly wasn’t the best boyfriend. Says a lot about how good my taste in men is.”

They’re quiet as Phil slides the finished sandwich onto a plate, placing it in front of her with a soft smile, reaching over to squeeze her hand softly as she shrugs, eyes only slightly watery as she looked up at him.

“It’ll give Mom something new to lecture me on,” she says, and Phil’s heart shifts a little in his chest at how downtrodden she looks.

“What if you didn’t have to spend the holiday with your mom?” he asks, and her eyebrows crinkle together, forming a cute little line between her eyes as she takes a bite of her sandwich.

“There is no earthly reason why my mother would let me stay in Boston for the holiday, especially since you’re going back to Wisconsin,” she answered, and Phil shook his head, rounding the counter to slide into the chair next to her.

“You wouldn’t be in Boston,” he continued, and her frown deepened. “I may have embellished my last relationship to my mother a _little_ too much.”

“Shocking,” Melinda replied with a snort, and Phil mock-glared at her before he went on.

“I liked Audrey, but we didn’t click,” he said with a shrug, and Melinda touched his forearm sympathetically. “But, not the point. You know that once Julie Coulson gets an idea in her head, she never lets it go.”

Melinda nodded, and he took a deep breath, calming his racing pulse to speak carefully.

“Melinda May, would you do me the honor of pretending to be my girlfriend for the week of the holidays?” he asked, and Melinda’s eyes widened as her lips parted, shock crossing her features.

“Phil…”

“It’s just for the week, and you know how excited they’d all be if you came to stay,” he says when she trails off, trying to squash the hope in his chest at the small smile that curves her lips. “Then I’ll come up with some story later about you finding someone much more worthy of you to get my family off my back.”

Melinda rolls her eyes, reaching over to find his hand with hers, twining their fingers easily. “I’d much rather spend a holiday at the Coulson residence, pretending to be your girlfriend, than go home and listen to the sound of my mother’s non-Christmas music for seven whole days.”

“Are you prepared to seal the deal?” Phil asks, his free hand coming up to cup her cheek, thumb brushing over her cheekbone as his face moved within inches of hers. He felt her breath catch in her chest before she looks up, a choked laugh leaving her throat at the sprig of green hanging from the light above the breakfast bar.

“Under the mistletoe?” she asks, breathless, and Phil’s lips curl into a grin that matches hers.  “Well, practice makes perfect, right?”

Even as her hand slips to his neck, he isn’t prepared in the slightest for Melinda’s lips on his; they’d shared a few drunken kisses over the years of their friendship, and had been each other’s New Year’s Eve buddy on more than one occasion, but something about this kiss is different. They’re sober, and about to pretend to be a couple for the next seven days, and oh god he could get used to the feeling of her tongue on his lower lip and the taste of strawberry milk in his mouth.

He’s screwed.


	2. Hot Chocolate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I do not snore, Phillip Joshua Coulson, and if you spread that fact around you can sleep on the couch,” Melinda countered, and Julie and Maria snickered as he folded his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I....did not mean to leave so long between updates but work and rl are absolutely kicking my ass. SO I do not know if this fic will actually be finished up by Christmas but even if it takes me until next Christmas I WILL FINISH IT BY GOD. Anyway, enjoy the fluff!

The plane ride to Manitowoc takes nearly five hours, after being delayed for nearly two due to an incoming blizzard from New York, so by the time they touch down on the tarmac at almost three in the morning, Melinda is cranky and Phil doesn’t want to sit down again for at least a year. They rent a car, and Melinda falls asleep barely five minutes in, the heat blasting and the radio fuzzing in and out, Christmas music occasionally coming in spottily.

When he pulls up to the house half an hour later, he smiles softly at the lights strung along the gutter, and the snowman with its stony smile in the front year, a scarf he recognizes as an old one of Maria’s wrapped around its neck. Everyone is asleep, given it’s not even four am, but his mother had told him she’d fixed up the guest room (also known as his childhood bedroom), so he gently shakes Melinda awake, hiding the grin at her sleepy mumbling.

He leaves most of their stuff in the car, grabbing only the overnight bag Melinda had packed, which had mostly just consisted of throwing their shit in it together haphazardly and struggling to zip it closed an hour before they were supposed to leave for the airport. Melinda cuddles into his side, head under his chin and arm wrapped loosely around his waist. She refuses to wake up, so Phil guides her through the lightly falling snow, unlocking the door onehandedly and nudging her inside.

The house is warm, and, unsurprisingly, looks like a holiday store had exploded all over it. He locks the door behind him and toes off his boots; Melinda wobbles, hands on his shoulders as he unlaces hers, helping her tug them off before he lets her melt into his side, guiding her down the hall to the bedroom. He helps Melinda shrug out of her coat, and she immediately crawls under the covers and promptly burrows her face into the pillow.

He watches her for a moment before he brings his pajamas into the bathroom; he changes quickly, rubbing at his eyes and yawning. He’s walking back to his bedroom when he hears the creak of the floorboards and the rustle of socked feet on the hardwood; the door pushes open just as a blonde head peeks into the room, eyes full of sleep. “Phil!”

Phil scooped his little sister up as she ran to him, smiling into her shoulder as her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs locked around his waist. She squeezed tightly, nose under his jaw and fingers tight on the neck of his shirt, not letting him go. “I missed you too, Sharon.”

“I’m so happy you’re home,” she whispered, breath warm against his cheek, and he squeezed her a little harder. “Will you tuck me in?”

Phil didn’t answer, merely shifted her a little higher and began walking down the hall towards Sharon’s room, letting her cuddle into him, breathing evening out as he pushed the door to her room that he’d painted pink two years ago open with his foot. He carefully laid her in bed, tucking her comforter up under her chin and smoothing her blonde hair back gently. “Sweet dreams, Agent Coulson.”

“See you in the morning, Agent Coulson,” she murmured drowsily, their old game easy to follow even while she was on the verge of dreamland. Phil smiled, watching as her eyes blinked closed before staying shut, creeping out of her room and shutting the door softly before moving back down the hall. Melinda was still curled up in bed, and he slid in on the empty side, sighing at the cold sheets before pulling the blankets up to his chin. Melinda squirmed around for a few moments before shifting forward, head falling on his shoulder as she yawned, curling into his side, drawn to his warmth.

He fell asleep to the sound of Melinda’s breathing and the scent of her hair in his dreams.

* * *

When he wakes up, the bed is cold and there’s laughter floating in through the half-open door; he scrubs his hand over his face, rubbing away the last dregs of sleep before he pushes himself up, stretching his arms up.

When he pads into the kitchen a little while later, his mother is sitting at the kitchen table with Melinda, two mugs between them and smiles on their faces. Sharon and Maria are in the living room, one of Sharon’s favorite cartoons on the screen and Maria’s head buried in a book.

“Good morning sleepy head,” his mother said, standing to give him a hug and he hugged her back tightly. “You could have told me Melinda was the mystery girlfriend!”

“Wanted to surprise you,” he says with a shrug, meeting Melinda’s gaze over Julie’s shoulder. She smiled warmly at him, taking a sip from the mug in front of her. “Are you drinking coffee?”

“Absolutely not,” Melinda replied with an eye roll, thumb running over the rim of the ceramic. “Your mom made me hot chocolate. Real hot chocolate.”

“I would never keep that powder crap in this house,” Julie added stubbornly, arms folding over her chest. “Would you like a cup, Phil?”

“I think I’ll stick to my coffee, thanks,” he replied, and Melinda pulled a face.

“If you think you’re kissing me after you drink that, you have another thing coming.”

“There should be no kissing going on while I’m in the room, please and thank you,” Maria said as she walked into the kitchen, opening the fridge and pulling out a jug of orange juice. “But also preferably also while I’m not in the room, I don’t want to have to sleep with ear plugs in.”

“Maria,” Julie warned, and Sharon shuffled into the kitchen, climbing into Melinda’s lap as she frowned.

“Because Phil snores?” she asked, face puzzled, and Phil put on a mock-wounded expression, holding a hand over his heart.

“Sharon Coulson I do not _snore_ ,” he said, appalled, and Sharon giggled, burrowing further into Melinda’s lap, and Melinda smiled down at her, lightly tickling her sides. “It’s actually Melinda that snores, you know.”

“I do not snore, Phillip Joshua Coulson, and if you spread that fact around you can sleep on the couch,” Melinda countered, and Julie and Maria snickered as he folded his arms.

“This is technically still my house,” he said, and Julie let out a full-on laugh, her red hair falling in her face.

“I like her more,” Julie bit out between laughter, and Phil glared at his family, cheeks flaming red before he moved to the coffee maker, filling his mug.

“C’mon, you know you missed us Phil,” Maria said, nudging him, and he rolled his eyes, generously heaping sugar into the dark liquid in his mug.

“Me, miss my crazy, hormone-riddled family? Never,” he answers, and Melinda lets out a snort. “I heard that.”

“I meant you to,” she replies in a sing-song voice, smile clear in her tone. She blows him a kiss when he turns around, and he rolls his eyes, put pretends to pluck it out of the air and tuck it in his pocket; Sharon giggles at him, blue eyes bright and happy, and he leans back against the counter as Maria begins to explain some joke her friend Trish had told her the other day. Melinda catches his eye and winks, smile bright, and he can’t help but grin back, overwhelmed by how well she fits in with his family.

It finally, _finally_ was starting to feel like Christmas.


	3. Snowfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A coffee shop, a car ride, and some snowflakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I....do not even have a good excuse for the wait for this chapter. I won't promise to get anything out soon, but I promise this fic won't be forgotten!

“So, where are you taking me?” Melinda asked, turning to look at Phil as they drove through his neighborhood, distracted by the heavily-decorated houses.

“We’re in charge of picking Sharon up from school, but I figured I’d show you around the town. There’s a great coffee place, and they have a peppermint tea you’ll die for,” laughing at the look she gives him at “coffee place”. “You have absolutely no faith in me, do you?”

“I have every faith in you,” Melinda replies easily, hand covering his on the gear shift briefly. Phil smiled at her, neck flushing as he drove them into town, his shoulders relaxing at the familiar sights of his hometown. “That’s where I threw up after I got drunk for the first time. And that’s where Stark set himself on fire on accident once.”

“Tony Stark never did anything by accident, you told me,” Melinda said in amusement as he pulled into the parking lot of Thor’s Java Palace.

“That’s a true statement, but that time it wasn’t his fault. Rhodey may have cut a few wires that he shouldn’t have and Tony ended up setting himself alight,” Phil told her as he parked the car, coming around to help her out; his arms held her up as her boots slid on the ice, and she couldn’t help the sharp inhale as she grips his forearms.

“Thanks,” she murmured, heat flushing over her skin at the grin he gives her. They walk arm in arm to the café; a warm burst of air hits her face as they enter the building, and she shivers happily as Phil tells her to pick a table while he orders. She picks one near the window, so she can watch the people walking through town, and Phil joins her a few moments later with two large, steaming mugs.

“Sif put extra sugar in yours, just the way you like it,” Phil tells her, settling the blue ceramic in front of her; Melinda grins at him before sending the dark-haired girl behind the counter a wink of her own. “She’s Thor’s girlfriend; they built this place a few years ago and they make the best cappuccinos ever. They have a great band night too- Guardians of the Galaxy used to play here before they made it big.”

“That’s the one with Quill, right?” Melinda asks, stirring her tea before taking a sip, mint and sugar coating her tongue and curling her lips upward into a smile. Phil nodded, watching her without drinking from his own mug as his mouth mirrored hers. “What?”

“Nothing,” he says, and she tilts her head, questioning. Before he can say anything else, a dark-haired girl wrapped in a shawl and fingers covered in rings stops at their table, eyebrows raised in amusement.

“Philip Coulson?” she asks, and Phil looks at her for a moment before he sits forward, elbows on the table.

“Wanda Maximoff. Long time no see,” he says, standing to hug her as she laughs, a low, throaty sound. They chat for a moment before Phil turns to Melinda. “This is my girlfriend, Melinda May. Melinda, meet Scarlet Witch.”

“No one has called me that in ages,” Wanda says, shaking her head as Phil settles in the seat beside Melinda, gesturing for Wanda to sit across from them. His arm wraps around the back of her chair, fingers playing with a loose string on her sweater as her fingers brush along the rim of her mug. “It was a stage name- my brother and I used to be in a band together.”

“Really? What happened?” Melinda asked, taking another sip of tea. Wanda’s gaze drops, and she sighs quietly before she speaks.

“He died, a few years ago,” she answered, and Melinda’s shoulders dropped. “He was shot; he took a bullet for a man who was buying food for his family. He was a good man, Pietro was. Clint still writes, occasionally. Named his son after my brother.”

Wanda smiles at that, and when she looks at them her eyes are bright. “My husband is waiting for me, but it was so nice to see you again Phil, and to meet you Melinda. Have a wonderful holiday.”

Melinda and Phil murmur a goodbye as she stands, but Phil doesn’t remove his arm even once they’re alone, instead pulling her chair closer until she was essentially pressed against his side. “How’s the tea?”

“Delicious. But you knew I’d think so,” she replies with an eye roll, though she nudges him affectionately. “What time do we have to pick Sharon up?”

“We can sit for a few more minutes,” he tells her, thumb rubbing over her shoulder. She hides her smile on her mug, content to sit in silence until Phil nudges her up. They leave their mugs at the counter, Melinda giving Sif and the blonde man who’s joined her a wave as they exit.

Phil points out a few more landmarks as they drive to Sharon’s school; the bell is just ringing as they pull into the bus circle, idling in a long line of cars against the curb. “Sharon has the same principal I did- I don’t think Nick Fury will ever retire at this point,” Phil tells her, pointing out a tall black man with an eyepatch, wearing a very un-principal like long leather trench coat. “I think that coat is older than I am.”

“He doesn’t look as scary as you’ve made him out to be,” Melinda comments, lips curled in amusement as she kicks her feet up on the dash. Phil glares and she sticks her tongue out until he relents, fingers catching hers just as Sharon bounds up to the car, covered from head to toe in snow gear. She clambers into the back, throwing her backpack and lunch bag next to her as she starts chattering excitedly.

“Phil, they let us play in the snow! Cassie and I made snow angels and Jemma explained how snow is made while Fitz made the perfect snowball and Mrs. Weaver let me feed Whiskers today,” Sharon told them, before grinning at Melinda as she buckled her seat belt. “Hi Melinda! You look really pretty today.”

“Thank you Sharon. I love your hat,” Melinda tells her, turning in her seat so she can be face to face with the younger girl as Phil pulls away from the curb, heading back home. They chat about what Sharon had learned in school, and what Mack had said at the lunch table, and they’re deep in a conversation about what color they should paint their nails when Phil nudges Melinda, grinning.

“It’s snowing,” he says, pointing out the windshield- and he’s right, thick white flakes are falling rapidly, covering the blades and the already-white ground.

Melinda rolls down the window, sticking her hand out the window; when she brings it back into the car, her glove-covered hand is covered in flakes, and Sharon giggles when Melinda sticks the cold appendage against Phil’s sensitive neck. He jumps, glaring at her, and the blonde laughs harder, poking at her brother’s girlfriend. “Do it again Mel! Again!”

“How about we have a snowball fight once we get home?” Melinda suggests as she rolls up her window, and Sharon agrees readily, bouncing excitedly in the backseat.

“Will you be on my team Mel? Phil can have Maria!” the blonde asks, and Melinda nods, wrinkling her nose at Sharon.

“We’ll kick their butts together,” she says, leaning back to offer up her fist for Sharon to bump; the little girl does before pulling it back and making an exploding noise, fingers spreading. Melinda laughs, the sound bubbling up in her chest, and she feels Phil’s eyes on her when they stop at a light. She turns her head to look at him, caught off guard by the warmth in her best friend’s eyes.

This relationship was fake, but she was beginning to think that just maybe, the feelings weren’t.


	4. Candy Canes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melinda May is not to be trusted around Phil Coulson with a candy cane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all your kind comments last chapter! I hope you like slow burn because this baby is only just starting to heat up with this chapter.

“Mom, where are the candy canes?” Maria’s voice calls from the kitchen, and Julie winces, face scrunching up.

“I’m sorry honey, I forgot all about them,” she tells her middle daughter when she comes out to the living room, hands on her hips.

“Mom, the class party is tomorrow! How am I supposed to make the mice ornaments without the candy cane tail?” the brunette cries, and Phil stands from where he’s watching a basketball game on the couch, touching his sister’s arm.

“Hey, M, it’s fine- I’ll take you out now, I know that new Target is still open, and we’ll get you all the candy canes you need, okay?” he says, calming the teenager down. Melinda watched him with her chin in her hands, hiding the smile at how good he was with his sister. “I’ll even get you Starbucks.”

“I’m so happy you’re home,” is all Maria answers with, ducking into the mud room to get her boots and coat, wrapping a scarf around her neck. Phil shakes his head fondly, leaning down to kiss Melinda’s cheek and squeeze his mom’s shoulder, shoving his wallet in his back pocket and pulling his coat on.

“We’ll be back,” he calls over his shoulder as he shuts the door, and Julie chuckles as she goes back to sewing Sharon’s angel costume for the Christmas pageant.

“That boy is just wrapped around his sisters’ fingers,” she muses affectionately, and Melinda goes back to her book with a wide smile.

_

“Melinda’s pretty,” is how Maria starts the conversation the moment they’re out of the driveway, and Phil stifles a groan as he flicks on the radio. Every station is playing cheesy Christmas music, and he only makes it halfway through Silent Night before he’s turning it off again.

“Yes, she is,” he finally answers, turning onto the highway that’ll take them straight to the brand new Target that had been built just outside the small town a few months ago. Maria settles into her seat, looking at him.

“So how long have you two been dating?”

“A few months,” Phil answers with a noncommittal shrug, thumb tapping against the steering wheel.

“Do you love her?”

“She’s my best friend,” is his next answer, not quite as quick as the first one, and he can feel the grin Maria’s face breaks out into without even having to see it.

“That’s why you brought her home, isn’t it?” his sister asks, folding her arms, and Phil’s grip tightens. “You looooooooooooove her.”

“Stop it, Maria,” Phil says, voice tired, flicking on his turn signal to take the exit. “You’re too young to realize how complicated love and relationships are.”

“I’m fifteen, not a baby,” Maria fires back, and Phil shakes his head, pulling into the parking lot.

“I didn’t call you a baby, but you’re still in high school. Love is different to you than it is to me,” he says as they walk through the snow-crusted parking lot, Maria shivering as she burrowed into his side. “I’m happy Melinda wanted to come back and see you guys again, but our relationship is new, okay?”

 “Okay,” Maria concedes, chin on Phil’s shoulder as they wander towards the Christmas aisles, everything festive and cheerful. “I’m just glad you’re happy, Phil. I can see how much she likes you.”

Phil just smiles, letting her pick out the candy canes she needs, throwing them in the basket on her arm before grabbing a few rolls of shiny red ribbon and a bag of tinsel for good measure.

Internally, though, he couldn’t pin down his racing thoughts. Sure, Melinda loved him in a way- they were best friends, they were pretending to be dating; they knew each other better than anyone. But for Maria to make a comment about how much the younger girl could see that Melinda liked him? It sent warmth racing to his stomach and hope flitting through his veins.

“C’mon Phil, you promised me Starbucks!”

_

“Mel do you want to help with the mice!” is Maria’s cry upon opening the door, and Phil just shakes his head, cleaning up the snow she’s tracked in and placing her boots on the damp mat next to his. Melinda’s getting up from where she and Sharon had been watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas- the cartoon, also known as his favorite Christmas movie of all time, and she pauses to kiss the corner of his mouth affectionately, squeezing his hand before she settles beside Maria at the kitchen table.

“I’ll help too, considering you spent my money,” Phil says, sitting on his sister’s other side while she explains how to cut the mice bodies out of the forest green felt she has. Julie makes them all hot chocolate as Maria explains the book they’re reading in her English class with intricate detail; Melinda nudges Phil’s foot with hers under the table, smiling at him, and he winks back.

Melinda sticks a candy cane in her cocoa while she works, and after she’s finished her portion of the mice (t _hey look perfect Mel, thank you!_ Maria had said, causing Phil to mock his sister while Melinda kicked at his shins under the table), she takes it out of the hot liquid, sucking on the end. She watches the blood drain from Phil’s face as she settles back in her chair, tongue wrapping around the minty candy, sucking lightly.

He inhaled sharply, eyes glued to her mouth, and she swallows down the throaty chuckle she wants to let out at the way his breath caught in his throat.

“You forgot to put eyes on that mouse, Phil,” she says, standing up with her empty mug, still sucking on the end of her candy cane. He coughed, unable to speak as her fingers flirted with his shoulder on her way to the kitchen.

Oh, he was in _so_ much trouble.


	5. Christmas Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melinda goes with the Coulson Family to cut down their Christmas tree.

“Wait, we’re doing _what_?” Melinda asks, raising an eyebrow as she watches the Coulson’s get dressed in their snow gear.

“Cutting down our tree,” Phil repeats as he shoves his feet into his boots, an obnoxiously fluffy hat on his head that Julie had pulled from the closet. “We do it every year- there’s a tree farm not far away.”

“You actually…cut down a tree?” Melinda asks, nose wrinkling, and Julie’s laugh sounds from where she’s digging in the closet for scarves.

“Welcome to the Midwest, darling,” she says, emerging with three long stretches of wool, tossing them to Phil. “It’ll be fun, I promise. Plus they make a great warm spiced cider.”

“Well now I have to go,” Melinda teases, grabbing her own boots. Sharon beams at her, settled on the floor as Phil helps her lace up her boots, a matching pink hat and scarf set covering most of her face.

“You can help drag the tree to the car,” Phil adds, and Melinda sticks her tongue out at him, causing Sharon to giggle at them.

Phil drives, and the scenery is beautiful, trees and fields and mountains covered in snow. Julie flicks the station to some Christmas tunes, and Sharon sings along softly, head bobbing as she looks out the window. Melinda is settled between Maria and Sharon; the teenager has headphones in and is scrolling intensely through her phone. She’d been in a bad mood since that morning, and Melinda nudges her gently until she pops one of the blue earbuds out.

“Wanna talk about whatever’s bugging you?” she asks softly, and the brunette shrugs, though she does take the other headphone out. “I’m a pretty good listener, you know.”

“Maybe later,” Maria says, but she’s less sullen, and the phone takes residence in her pocket.

The tree farm is decorated festively, and there are a few other cars in the parking lot; Phil parks and helps all three of them out of the car. His hand wraps around Melinda’s, and he guides them towards one of the back fields that’s marked off with green tape, to show they’re alright to cut down.

“Alright Sharon, what’re we feeling this year?” Phil asks, and Sharon taps her chin dramatically as she contemplates.

“I want a REALLY BIG ONE Phil!” she decides, throwing her arms wide, and Phil smiles, taking her hand as they walked into the field.

“Sounds like a good place to start, Agent Coulson,” he says, and Sharon takes Melinda’s hand in her free one, walking them through the staggered pine trees. “Do you want a wide one, or a tall one?”

“I want a wide one. So we can put more ornaments on it!” the blonde answers, and Phil nods, pointing to a tree a few feet away.

“Like that one?” he asks, and Sharon considers it, tilting her head.

“That one’s too tilted, we have to find a better one,” she said with a shake of her hair, tugging them further into the field, Maria and Julie trailing behind them, the latter with her head behind her camera, taking pictures with a large smile.

Sharon pulls them for a bit before she stops, gasping as she drops both their hands and points, bouncing excitedly. “Phil! Phil that’s it!”

The tree is unique- shorter and plump, with thick branches covered in dark green needles, dusted with snow. It’s short enough that it will fit in the living room, and wide enough to make Sharon happy, so Phil crawls under the lowest branches and uncaps the saw he’d brought, setting to work.

Melinda gave a low wolf whistle as Phil rolled to the side, his snow-covered ass on display; Maria makes a disgusted noise, and Julie just laughs, wrapping an arm around Melinda’s shoulders and squeezing.

“Timber!” comes Phil’s muffled yell, and the tree tips until it falls with a small crash.

“Excellent job, sweetheart,” Julie says as Phil stands, brushing off his pants before he takes the saw to some of the lower branches, cutting them away until the trunk of the tree had enough room to hold to drag it to the car.

“Sharon, you really had to pick the tree at the very back of the field, didn’t you?” Phil asked, looking at the distance he’d have to pull the tree and groaning. Melinda rolled her eyes, tugging her gloves on coming to join him.

“C’mon, it’ll be easier with both of us,” she said, gripping one side of the tree while Phil took the other. They pulled the tree through the snow to the encouraging cheers of Maria and Sharon, and when they finally reached the car, both were out of breath. “I’m gonna need a really, really large cup of that promised cider.”

“I’ll strap this to the car- Mom, you can take them all the to snack shop, I’ll meet you guys there,” Phil said, squeezing Melinda’s arm and smiling as Julie gathers her daughters and guides them towards the cozy-looking shop with candles in the windows.

Julie orders ciders for them all- they have a nonalcoholic version for the kids- and gingerbread donuts, which they’re all enjoying by the time Phil joins them. He slides into the seat next to Melinda, arm around her shoulders as she hands him his cider, splitting her donut so he can have half. “So, good?”

“They should bottle this stuff and sell it,” is Melinda’s response, taking another sip and reaching for another donut. “This makes dragging that tree for twenty minutes worth it.”

“Told you so,” Phil replied smugly, squeezing her shoulders, and Melinda rolled her eyes, shoving him lightly.

Julie watched them with a smirk over her cup of cider, and Melinda’s cheeks pink before she leans over to kiss Phil’s cheek. Nothing more than show, obviously.

At least, that’s what she told herself.


	6. Ornaments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julie and Phil get the ornaments from the attic, and Maria opens up to Melinda.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went out on a ledge a little in this chapter- hope you all enjoy!

“The tree is crooked, Phil,” Melinda tells him from where she’s settled on the couch, Sharon dozing on her shoulder and a Christmas movie on the television. Phil looks up from a manifest list Natasha had emailed him, his glasses perched on the end of his nose, and she hides her smile in Sharon’s blonde hair as he looks at the tree.

“Motherfu-” he stops himself from finishing the curse, standing up and kneeling next to the tree stand, unscrewing it and adjusting the trunk of the tree further down on one side. “Better?”

“A little further down on the left,” Melinda instructs, watching the muscles of Phil’s arms working, swallowing thickly. “Much better, now it doesn’t look like it’s trying to look out the window.”

Phil gives her the finger before picking up the sheets of paper and his highlighter- he was old school, liked to have physical copies of things in his hands. Melinda loved that about him- liked that he didn’t want everything digital, that he liked there to be a story to everything he touched. He was vintage, one of the few left, and it was her favorite thing about him.

“Phillip, come help me with these boxes!” came his mother’s muffled shout from the attic, and he sighed, leaving his glasses on as he went to help her. Melinda turned her attention back to the movie, Sharon sleepily snuggling further into her. She stroked a hand through tangled blonde curls, content to simply sit and cuddle with the little girl, until Phil came back into the living room, a few plastic containers in his arms.

“Ornament time!” he said cheerfully, and Melinda nudged Sharon up, the little girl drowsily rubbing at her eyes as she sat up. “Mom has more boxes, but you guys can start going through these if you want. I brought the lights out, and they shouldn’t be too tangled from last year.”

Melinda nodded, going to the box marked ‘Lights’ and finding multiple strings of lights; she selected the multicolored strand and was pleased to see it was barely tangled- she got a few of the kinks out before she plugged it in. It lit up without a problem, so she grabbed the outlet extender, plugging it in near the tree before plugging in the lights and starting to wrap it around the tree. “Hey Sharon, come help me for a second. I can’t reach back behind the tree, think you can help me with the lights?”

“Of course Mel!” Sharon said, popping up from where she’d opened one of the ornament boxes and coming to take the string Melinda was holding. Sharon ducked behind the tree, fitting in the smaller space, and together they wrapped the lights around the tree. When Phil and Julie returned with the last of the boxes, they’d put another two strands on- another string of colors and one of white.

“It looks beautiful girls!” Julie exclaimed, setting the box in her arms down and letting Sharon hug her around the middle, beaming. “Has anyone seen Maria?”

“She was blasting music in her room, I couldn’t get her to come out,” Phil said, and Melinda stepped forward, hands in her pockets.

“Mind if I try talking to her?” she asked, and Julie looked relieved as she nodded. She pressed a quick kiss to Phil’s cheek before she slipped down the hall, heading for Maria’s room. She doesn’t even bother knocking- can hear the pounding bass of music coming from behind the door- and when she opens the door, has to duck to avoid getting smacked with a stuffed teddy bear.

“Oh- sorry, Mel. I thought you were going to be Phil,” the brunette teenager said, flicking the music off as Melinda picked up the stuffed animal and shutting the door behind her.

“Do you want to talk about what’s going on?” Melinda asked softly, leaning back against the door and hugging the bear to her chest, raising an eyebrow in question. Maria sighed, burying her head under a pillow and letting out a muffled yell of frustration. Melinda hid her snort, waiting for the younger girl to calm down enough to talk.

“I think I…I think I like someone,” she starts, hesitantly, and Melinda moves from her position at the door to sit at the foot of Maria’s bed.

“And that’s a bad thing,” Melinda says, not quite a question but not quite a statement. Maria sighs, sitting up as she tucks her hair behind her ear, looking at her hands in her lap.

“It’s not a guy?” she asks, lips quirking upwards slightly, and Melinda leans forward, touching her knee gently.

“That is definitely not a bad thing,” she tells her softly, giving her a smile. Maria gave her a hesitant smile back, and she squeezed her knee again. “What’s her name?”

“Bobbi,” Maria says, her whole face lighting up as she says the name. “She’s a year below me but she’s in advanced science so we’re in the same class. She’s _really_ smart, and she always has her hair up in this long curly ponytail. And she takes karate and has these staff things she twirls and just- I really like her.”

Melinda smiles, amusement in her eyes as she watches Maria talk about the girl. “So what’s with the sullen mood, if you like her so much?”

“What if she doesn’t like me?” Maria asks in a small voice, confidence shrinking. “What if she doesn’t like girls like that? I don’t want to…read the signs wrong, or anything. And Mom doesn’t know. About me, that is. I…don’t know how to tell her.”

“You’ll know, in time,” is all Melinda can tell her, as reassuring as she can be. “It’s not an easy conversation, but your mom loves you. A lot.”

Maria sighed before she surged forward, hugging Melinda tightly; she fell backwards a little before she hugged the teenager back, holding her tightly and rubbing her back.

“C’mon- let’s go decorate the tree with your family. You can tell me more about Bobbi over some hot cocoa later, sound good?” she asked, and Maria nodded, pushing her hair out of her face and giving her a smile.

“Thanks, Melinda. Really,” she said, and Melinda smiled at her, touching her cheek gently before standing and dragging the teenager with her to the living room.

“We grabbed some ornaments for each of you to hang,” Julie tells them once they enter the room, where Phil is hanging a large baseball ornament from one of the higher branches. He turns to look at them, eyes landing on Melinda and his face lighting up. He came to stand next to her, handing her the ornament they’d selected for her.

“This one was one of my favorites as a kid,” he said, giving her the Garfield ornament. She smiled, touching his arm for a moment before she went to hang it. Phil’s arms wrapped around her waist when she stepped away and she laughed, leaning into him as they admired the partially-decorated tree.

“Looks good,” she murmurs, head leaning against his. She felt him smile, holding her tighter, and everything else melted away.


	7. Christmas Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julie tells the story of the Coulson family Christmas angel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are heating up between our favorite best friends- so much so that I managed to update on back to back days?? What can I say- I've been inspired by my own love life going well, I guess.

“Mom, where’s the angel?” Maria asked as she looked at the decorations, frowning. Julie pulled out a large, gold box, opening it slowly and bringing out the angel inside reverently.

“Saved it for last,” she answered quietly, a soft smile touching her features as she smoothed down the angel’s wings. “Now Melinda, do you know the story of this angel?”

Melinda shook her head as Phil tugged her into his lap on the couch so Sharon and Maria could fit with them, and Julie sat on the coffee table, angel in her hands.

“Robert got this angel for us our very first Christmas,” Julie starts, eyes sad as she mentions her late husband. “We’re barely been married for a month when Christmas rolled around, and we were all on our own- we’d moved here for his job, away from both our families. We hardly knew anyone in town yet, and we were practically living off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while we waited for his Christmas bonus.”

Julie’s smile grows as she talks, remembering their first Christmas, and Melinda leans further into Phil, one arm around his neck to keep him close.

“Anyway, it was a few days before Christmas, and we had this small little tree- we had a few ornaments from when we’d dated, and some our families had sent, since we wouldn’t be with them for the holiday,” Julie continues, adjusting the bent halo on the angel. “But we didn’t have an angel- I’d been thinking about going out to get a cheap star, since we didn’t have much money, when Robert came home from work, happier than I’d seen him since we’d moved to what seemed like the snowiest town in America.”

“He’d found this angel at the thrift store- it needed a little work; some repainting, and her wings were missing a few feathers, but otherwise she was beautiful,” Julie says, eyes falling on the angel as she traced a finger over the angel’s porcelain face. “Her name on the box was Maria- and he said he hadn’t been able to pass it by. So, we fixed her up- painted her hair brown, made her eyes as blue as the sky, added some feathers to her wings, and I made the halo for her.”

Julie smiled at Maria, leaning forward to brush her daughter’s hair out of her face, fingers soft of her cheek. “I didn’t know it yet, but the way I’d pictured Maria the angel was actually God showing me what my eldest daughter would look like. My own angel.”

“Mom,” Maria said with an affectionate roll of her eyes, but she grasped Julie’s hand tightly in her own, smiling.

“Anyway, this angel has been in our family ever since,” Julie finished, looking at Melinda with a smile, blue eyes shining. “Maybe someday it will be yours.”

“Okay, Mom, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Phil starts, but Melinda cuts him off, sitting forward and placing a hand on Julie’s arm.

“If it does happen, we’d be honored,” she simply says before she settles back in Phil’s lap, fingers stroking through his hair in a soothing motion as Julie stood. She fixed the angel’s skirt before she settled it on the top of the tree, adjusting it until the angel looked out at them, brilliant smile painted on her face and a kind of warmth in her eyes, watching over them.

“I think we need some good old fashioned hot chocolate now,” Julie said, winking at a sleepy-eyed Sharon before she picked her up, carrying her into the kitchen and Maria trailing after them, leaving Phil and Melinda alone on the couch.

“You’ll give my mother ideas, if you keep talking like that,” Phil murmured casually after a moment, fingers playing with the ends of Melinda’s hair, sending warm shivers up her spine. She shrugged, leaning into his touch, unable to move from her comfortable position, wrapped up in him.

“Ideas might not be so bad,” she replied after a moment, a hand coming up to cup his stubble-covered jaw, thumb creating friction along it as she rubbed up to his ear. He moved into the touch, eyes dipping closed in pleasure as her fingers moved to brush over his Adam’s apple that bobbed as he swallowed. A low whine left his throat, and she smiled, leaning in close until their noses were nearly touching.

Phil’s eyes opened, the blue of his irises so dark they were nearly cobalt, and she felt her stomach bottom out, heat flashing up her spine.

There’s a moment where they just breathe together, sharing air, and then they’re kissing; it’s genuine and thrilling and Melinda’s eyes slide closed as pleasure fills her from head to toe. Phil’s hands trail down her spine as he tugs her further against him; one of her legs moves until she’s straddling him, their bodies entirely pressed together, and when the first kiss breaks, they’re panting and grinning and only parted for a seconds before they’re diving back in.

The second kiss is electric where the first one was fiery; sparks tingle on their tongues as they meet, and Phil’s hands slide from her back into her hair, angling her head until he can lick into her mouth. She simply melts into him; he tastes like spiced cider and the gingerbread cookie he’d eaten while they’d been hanging ornaments, and all she can think about is doing this every single day until the end of time.

“Okay ew please stop, this is the living room, aka the _family room_ ,” Maria’s disgusted voice breaks them apart, and Melinda hides her face in Phil’s chest as he strokes her hair, both of them fighting back laughter.

She pulled back to look at him, biting her lip as she searched his face, and only one thing was certain.

 _Everything_ had just changed.


	8. Tinsel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tinsel fight. That's literally it.

“Mommy we forgot the tinsel!” Sharon sounds appalled as she looks at the tree, and Julie laughs, stroking through her daughter’s hair as Maria digs through one of the boxes, letting out a triumphant noise.

“Found it!” she said, and Sharon pushed herself off the chair, running towards her older sister and waiting eagerly for the silver strings to be shoved into her hands. Phil and Melinda got up from where they were curled up on the couch, and Maria gifted them each with handfuls of the stuff before taking some of her own.

Two seconds later, Phil had a face of silver tinsel and Maria was laughing hysterically, bent over as she tried to breathe through her laughter. “That was so not cool, Maria.”

His sentence is cut off by a flash of gold, and suddenly Julie was laughing too, a newly opened tinsel package in her hands. Phil look offended before he squared his shoulders, a grin sliding onto his face.

“This is war!” he cried, throwing a bit at Sharon; she giggled, throwing her fistful at Melinda. More packages of the stuff are ripped opened; shining green and red and black and gold and silver and purple fly through the air.

Sharon hits Julie with a rainbow wad of tinsel and Julie places her hand over her heard, mock-falling onto the couch.

“Slayed by my own daughter,” she said faintly, pretending to die, and Sharon laughed, shaking her head.

“You’re so silly Mommy,” the blonde said, ducking a throw from Melinda and scooping to grab more, throwing it at Maria. “I’m gonna get you ‘Ria!”

“Not if I get you first!” the brunette replied, scooping up two giant handfuls and raining the shining strings over her younger sister, covering her in a small pile.

Phil was focused on throwing his tinsel at Melinda; she ducked to avoid his throws, aiming at his head with a handful of blue. He leaned forward, missing the tinsel, and grabbing her around the waist; she laughed, knocking at his back with her hands full of tinsel even as they fell to the floor, rolling back behind the couch when Maria tried to throwing tinsel at them.

In the darkness of the back of the room, Melinda’s mouth found his; he sank into it easily, hands sliding down her sides, gripping her hips as her arms looped around his neck. She tastes like the hot chocolate his mother had made and cherry chapstick, and he kisses her hard, like he can just sink inside her until they’re one person; her fingers stroke over his scalp, her thigh hitched up on his hip to hold him closer.

They should probably talk- they should _definitely_ talk about this sudden shift, but kissing her feels too good to stop, and they can’t have this kind of a conversation until everyone else is asleep anyway. When they part they’re both panting, and he can feel her smile against his cheek, her mouth trailing down his jaw to his pulse point, sucking lightly. He groans, low but deep, and she moves against him, hips hitting hips.

“God you’re killing me,” he murmurs against her skin, teeth tugging on her earlobe, and she giggles softly, hands against his back.

“You’ve been back there an awful long time,” comes Julie’s voice from the other side of the couch, and both of them feel heat rise to their cheeks as they untangle themselves. They both have pink faces when they come up, and Maria snickered as Melinda patted down his mussed hair.

“Mommy can we put all the tinsel on the tree?” Sharon asked, looking at Julie hopefully. The redhead shook her head, fingers carding through tangled blonde locks.

“No honey. You can put some of it on, but most of this is going in the trash.”

“I’ll help,” Melinda said, pushing herself to a standing position and going to get a broom. Julie gave Phil a knowing look, and he ducked his head, avoiding her gaze as he scooped up the tinsel that had fallen behind the couch.

“That girl is the best thing that’s ever happened to you,” Julie’s voice comes from right above Phil and he jumps a little, hitting his head on the couch as he stood up to face his mother.

“I’m aware of that, she’s my best friend,” Phil says, and Julie shakes her head, hands touching her son’s arms.

“No honey- I mean I’ve never seen you so happy in any of your former relationships,” she clarifies, and Phil shifts his feet. “Rosalind was nice, but she just wasn’t for you- same with that Carmilla. Melinda and you- you just fit together.”

“Yeah,” Phil said quietly, watching Melinda help Sharon clean tinsel out of her hair over his mother’s shoulder. Melinda tweaked his little sister’s nose, drawing a giggle from the sleepy little girl. He smiled without even realizing it, the image of Melinda with a little girl that looked like her but with his ears and his nose looking up at her coming unbidden into his mind, and he swallows hard.

“Don’t let that girl go,” Julie whispered, kissing Phil’s cheek and squeezing his hand before she went to help the girls with the tinsel.

Melinda looked up at Phil, catching his eye; he smiled and she grinned back, cheeks still flushed and eyes bright. His heart warmed, the tension in his chest leaving, and he can’t help but think that whatever happened, whatever this change meant- it would only bring good things with it.

He just had a good feeling.


	9. Pie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melinda hates pumpkin pie, and Sharon helps Phil bake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry about the delay- life has been weird and my muse has been flighty.

There’s no time to talk over the next few days- they’re up late decorating or helping Julie wrap presents or bake cookies, and up early to get Maria and Sharon to school. The Coulson house was home to a rather massive Christmas party, Phil revealed, so Julie was in massive cleaning and baking mode.

“Mom’s kind of famous for her pumpkin pie,” Maria says as she sits at the counter, working on her homework. “She makes a bunch of them to give to our neighbors and Nick.”

“Who’s Nick?” Melinda asks, looking up from her laptop, where she’d been looking through her email. Sharon giggles, and Julie’s cheeks flush as Maria leans forward, whispering conspiratorially.

“Nick is Mom’s boyfriend she thinks we don’t know she’s dating.”

“Maria Hillary Coulson you shut your mouth,” Julie says, throwing a rag at her, causing the brunette to laugh. “Nick Fury is a very good friend.”

“That you kiss,” Maria points out, and Julie turns her back at that, cutting into the now-cool pie.

“Who wants a slice of pie?” she asks instead, and both Maria and Sharon reply yes enthusiastically while Melinda goes back to her email, frowning at the three from agardner@gmail.com. She clicks delete without opening them, not caring enough to read through Andrew’s bullshit excuses, when Julie touches her shoulder lightly. “Would you like some pie, dear?”

“Oh, no thank you- I don’t really like pumpkin pie,” she answers, nose crinkling, and Julie’s face creases in concern.

“Phil never mentioned that,” she said, and she looks worried for a second; Melinda reaches forward to touch her hand, giving her a smile.

“It’s alright, I’m not a big dessert person anyway,” she tells her, and while Julie’s frown doesn’t leave, she does drop a kiss to the top of Melinda’s head before she heads back to the kitchen, bustling around the space.

Phil comes through the door, snow clinging to his hat as he took off his boots, cheeks red with wind and cold. Maria comes to take the pizza boxes from him and brings them to the dining room table; Sharon goes to wash her hands as Melinda shuts her laptop, moving towards Phil as he shrugged out of his coat. He’s in an old flannel shirt she knows must be his dad’s, and her chest warms when he looks at her, face lighting up.

“Hi,” she says, coming to kiss him; his hands are cold as he cups her cheeks and she shivers, leaning into him. She can feel him smile against her mouth and she can’t help but laugh, nudging his nose with hers as his hand slid down her back to hold her to him.

“Hey,” he murmured, kissing her again as she sighed, content to just stay right there. Phil opens his mouth to say something when Maria calls them to dinner, and they separate to walk to the dining room.

Sharon tells them about the Christmas pageant at school while they eat- she’s playing the narrator, and she has more lines than anyone else.

“I can help you with them if you want, Sharon,” Melinda said after she’d swallowed her bite of pizza, well aware of Phil’s warm hand resting on her thigh. “I used to do all the plays when I was in school.”

“That would be great Mel!” Sharon answers, face lit up, and Melinda smiles, crinkling her nose at the little girl as she takes another bite of pizza. Phil’s fingers stroking over her thigh warm her up from the inside out, and she feels her mouth go dry when he skims them up just a little higher.

Julie distracts Phil with a question and Melinda takes a second to breathe, reaching a hand down to twine their fingers together, squeezing. Phil squeezes back even mid-conversation with her mother, and it’s enough. This right now is enough to quell her fears and concerns and questions. They’d get to it later; right now, holding his hand was enough.

_

She’s not quite sure when Phil came to bed after staying up to talk with his mom about something, but she does remember him curling up around her, warming her up with his considerable body heat. She’d fallen back to sleep easily, warm and content.

But when she wakes up, she’s alone, and it’s the latest she’s slept in since they’d arrived- she rubs the debris of sleep from her eyes as she stands, tugging her hair up into a messy ponytail. She grabs one of Phil’s flannel shirts and tugs it on as she shoves her feet into thick socks and pads towards the bathroom. Once she’s splashed some water on her face she heads to the kitchen, drawn towards the sounds of soft laughter.

She leans in the doorway when she encounters Phil and Sharon and a lot of flour on the floor. Sharon’s giggling as Phil instructs her on mixing something in a bowl, puffs of white popping up occasionally- she can tell it’s in Sharon’s hair, and she can’t help the fond smile that crosses her lips. A flash of Phil and a little girl with dark hair and his smile, making Christmas cookies in a kitchen similar to this flashes through her mind, and she swallows at how much she suddenly wants that image.

“Am I interrupting something?” she asks instead, stepping forward to distract herself from her thoughts; brother and sister look up at her, a beaming grin dominating Sharon’s flour-covered face.

“We’re making you an apple pie!” the blonde tells her excitedly, and Melinda looks at Phil, lips parting.

“It’s the only dessert you like,” he replies with a shrug, a sheepish little smile on his face- she comes forward, kissing his cheek and tasting brown sugar and butter.

“You didn’t have to do this just for me,” she murmured, hand in the center of his chest. Phil looks at her, reaching a flour-streaking hand to brush her hair out of her face, touching her cheek gently.

“I wanted to,” he answered, voice just as low, and her stomach tightens in anticipation when his mouth covers hers; time stops for a minute when their lips meet, and Melinda melts into him, uncaring about the floor or her unbrushed hair.

Sharon giggles, breaking the illusion, and Melinda moves from Phil to hug the little girl where she stands on her chair at the counter, kissing her cheek.

“And thank _you_ , Miss Sharon. I love you,” she tells the blonde, earning a smile so bright it nearly blinds her.

“I can’t wait until Phil makes you my sister, Mel,” Sharon says, patting her head before she goes back to her job, which seems to have moved to mixing the sugars together to pour over the apples. Melinda raises an eyebrow, looking at Phil; he holds his hands up, innocent, and it only takes them a moment before they answer simultaneously.

“Maria.”


	10. Snowball Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sharon drags everyone outside for a snowball fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More toothrotting family fluff because I love them so much.

“It stopped snowing!” Sharon peered out the window before she turned back to beam at them, practically vibrating in excitement. “Can we have a snowball fight now Phil? Pleeeeeeeeeease?”

“Only if you get everyone else to agree,” Phil replies, taking his glasses off, and Sharon goes to Maria first. The brunette agrees after a lip wobble on the blonde’s part, and Julie caves in seconds- Melinda waits until Sharon comes to her, tiny hands on her knees and big blue eyes looking up at her.

“Mel will you please come have a snowball fight with us? You can be on my team and I’ll teach you how to make the perfect snowball, okay?” Sharon asks, and Melinda leans forward until they’re nose to nose.

“Okay,” she stage-whispers, and Sharon beams, surging forward to wrap Melinda in a hug before she shoots off to get in her snow gear. Melinda shakes her head fondly before she stands; Phil tugs her into him as Maria and Julie disappear into the closet to grab jackets and scarves. “Oh no, this is war, Lover Boy. You are the enemy and I will take you out with all force necessary.”

“God I love it when you talk dirty,” Phil says, and Melinda laughs as she shoves him away. Julie gives Melinda an extra scarf, smiling at her as she pulls on her hat; Maria links arms with Melinda as they walk outside, everything covered in fluffy white snow.

It takes about thirty seconds for Maria to get a snowball in the face- Julie has her face in her hands, laughing, and the teenager shook her head, flakes falling out of her hair. “Oh it is _so_ on.”

Melinda, Maria, and Sharon made their fort under one of the oak trees in the front of the house- Phil and Julie set up shop under the kitchen window on the side wall. Sharon instructs them on the best way to stack the blocks from the purple plastic square she’d unearthed; in a few minutes they had a nice little wall.

“Okay, you have to get a _lot_ of snow to make a good snowball,” Sharon starts off, gathering a small mound with her gloves. “Then you have to scoop it up and press really hard together until you can see your fingers outlined on the snow! Then move your hands until it’s all smooth.”

Melinda and Maria followed her instructions, proudly displaying their work; Sharon praised them, beaming.

“Okay, time to get Mommy and Phil!” she declared once they had a stockpile; she darted her head up, scoping them out. “Maria, you should go scout- you’re the fastest.”

“Sir yes sir,” Maria said, giving Sharon a mock salute that had the little girl in giggles, clutching her sides. Maria took a snowball with her before she ducked out, slinking the short distance between the forts- from her laugh she got one of them before she ran back. “Get the snowballs guys, it’s war!”

Melinda laughed, picking up a snowball and aiming for Phil’s head; it glanced off his ear and he looked at her, throwing his own snowball and hitting her shoulder. She raised an eyebrow; he shrugged, grinning, and she rolled her eyes, chucking another white sphere at his head. She got him in the forehead and she cheered, pumping a fist in the air in triumph.

“Mature, Mel!” he called, and she stuck her tongue out, ducking the ball he threw at her.

“You’re the one dating me!” she threw back, and Maria nudged her shoulder, a smile of her own on her face. Nodding, they both gathered up the last group of snowballs, lobbing them in succession; Phil and Julie threw up their hands in surrender.

“Alright, alright, you win!” Julie called, and Sharon cheered, standing up and jumping up and down, blonde hair caked in snow and cheeks pink with cold and excitement.

“In your _faces_!” she yelled, overexcited, and Melinda laughed, poking at the little girl’s side until she collapsed, laying out in the snow. “Come on Mel, make an angel with me.”

Melinda lay down next to her, linking their hands as they moved their arms and legs. Their angels were holding hands when they both carefully stood up, hopping out of the snow. She wrapped her arms around the little girl, kissing her cold cheek as she squeezed. “Love you, Sharon.”

“I love you too Mel,” she whispered back, tugging at her hands to go back inside, where Phil, Maria, and Julie had disappeared to make hot chocolate.

Melinda helped Sharon out of her snow things, leaving them by the fire to dry as the blonde little girl skipped into the kitchen. She’s bending over to unlace her own boots when she feels hands on her hips; she’s smirking as she stands up, toeing out of her boots and dropping a solid two inches lower than Phil’s chin.

“Enjoying the view?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. Phil chuckled, thumb insinuating itself under the hem of her sweater to touch the skin of her hip, drawing a shiver from her.

“I always do,” he replies softly, and Melinda flushes, heat flooding her cheeks. “I know things have been busy but…we should talk. About this.”

“About us, you mean,” she clarifies, and he nods, hand rubbing absentmindedly at her side as she unconsciously moved forward. “I think we should too- but not now. Later, when everyone’s asleep.”

“Okay,” Phil murmured; she smiled, reaching a hand up to cup his cheek before she leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss him softly, thumb brushing over his cheekbone.

“You better have saved me some hot chocolate, my ass is frozen,” she said as they pulled apart, and Phil laughed, tugging her with him to the kitchen.

“My mom would kick me out of the house before she left you hot chocolate-less.”


	11. Frosted Windows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Early morning snuggling from the cold, and, as promised, The Talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is short, but I couldn't really do much with frosted windows as a prompt for a full chapter!

Her nose is freezing when she wakes up; there’s frost covering the single window in Phil’s bedroom, and she shivers, burrowing further into the warm blankets. Phil’s arm wrapped tighter around her waist; he’d been passed out by the time she’d managed to untangle herself from Maria and Sharon on the couch, where they’d curled up to watch The Year Without A Santa Claus.

“Morning,” he murmurs hoarsely, nose brushing against her ear as she squirmed, his morning stubble tickling her skin.

“It’s freezing outside,” she whispered back, tugging the covers up higher until it covered their heads as she turned to face him, cold fingers brushing the curve of his jaw lightly. Cocooned under the warmth of the quilt and each other, Melinda felt herself relax as his fingers played with the hem of her sleep shirt, nails catching briefly on the skin of her hips. “So about that talk we were supposed to have last night…”

“How much of this is for show?” he asks when she trails off, and she takes a breath. He’d always been one to cut to the chase.

“At first, most of it was,” she starts honestly. “But you know it’s never been truly platonic with us. Just….the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe this is the universe telling us it’s the right place. The right time.”

She tilts her head up to look at him, lifting a hand up to cup his cheek, fingers fanning out over warm skin. “You’re my best friend, Phil. You always have been and you always will be. But…I don’t think that’s enough anymore.”

Phil just looked at her, the blue of his eyes wide and open, like a gateway to his soul. The corner of his mouth dragged up slowly as she held her breath, confession laid out between them.

“About time,” he whispered in a voice that flowed around her like warm honey. Her lips parted, the shock of his answer leaving her speechless before she rushes forward, kissing him as best she can around the grin creasing her face.

“What took us so long?” Melinda asked when they parted and had tugged the covers down to their chins, heads resting on respective pillows, hands intertwined between them. Phil brushed his thumb along the back of her head, shrugging.

“It’s like you said, we’ve spent our friendship since college in a wrong place, wrong time rut,” he answers, raising his eyes to hers. “I won’t lie- I’ve been in love with you since the moment I asked you if I was in Hall’s Psychology 101 class freshman year and you looked up at me with the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. But I think there’s a reason it took us this long to get here, Lin.”

Melinda doesn’t answer; just traces the laugh lines around his eyes with her fingertips. “I’d have said yes.”

Phil frowns, eyes opening to look at her. “To what?”

“If you’d asked me out that year,” she replies quietly, thumb running along Phil’s lower lip as they part, his eyes widening. “You may have been falling for me for the last eight years, but I’ve spent them telling myself you could never want to be with a girl like me.”

Phil’s index and middle finger tapped under her chin until she looked up at him, his thumb brushing the soft skin under her eyes as he gives her a small smile.

“I will never stop falling for you,” he murmurs, sending a rush of heat over her skin that combats the cold nipping at her earlobes. He leans forward, pressing a kiss to her pulse point; she sighs, sinking into the touch as he works his way along her jawline. “I can prove it right now.”

Melinda laughed, shoving him away as she shook her head, amused.

“Your mother and sisters are just down the hall. We are _not_ doing that for the first time in your childhood bed,” she laughs again when he tries to hug her closer, hands sliding down her back teasingly. “Come on, let’s go make pancakes. Those I won’t burn.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Phil said, tucking her hair back behind her ear as she stuck her tongue out at him. “Alright, let’s go. I’ll make the bacon.”

Melinda kissed him again, long and deep, before she climbed from the bed, pulling on a pair of thick socks and one of his sweatshirts before she disappeared down the hall towards the kitchen. He laid in the warm sheets for a few more minutes, a dumb grin on his face. Melinda May was his girlfriend.

For _real_.


	12. Stockings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melinda and Phil do some tai chi, and Sharon has a present for Melinda.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I...absolutely did not mean for so long to go between updates, but for some reason this chapter tripped me up and it took completely starting from scratch to get it to flow the way I wanted. We're halfway through this fic! It'll likely get finished just in time for this Christmas, it seems.

She’s starting the coffee maker for Phil and Julie when strong, warm arms wrap around her waist and tug her against a broad chest; she smiles, resting her head against Phil’s shoulder as he drops a kiss to her neck.

“You’re up early,” he remarks, reaching into the cabinet she has open and pulling down three mugs, handing one to her to make her tea in. She shrugs, grabbing one of the bags of green tea and heating the kettle on the stove, yawning.

“I haven’t been keeping up with my tai chi, so I figured I’d try to do some this morning,” she replies, stretching her arms up over her head, revealing a strip of pale skin as her shirt rides up. “Plus it’s only five days to Christmas- I have shopping to do.”

“You haven’t finished your Christmas shopping?” Phil asks, raising an eyebrow, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

“Not all of us buy our gifts six months in advance,” she answered, pulling the whistling tea kettle off the stove and pouring the steaming liquid into her cup. “You can watch, if you’d like.”

Phil adds sugar to his coffee before he follows her into the living room; she pushes the coffee table up against the wall to give herself space, and he settles himself in the arm chair to watch her. She starts off slow- he’s watched her enough times to know she eases into her routine.

It strikes him as he’s watching her that he can do this every day for the rest of their lives. He can get up with the sun- with her- and watch her graceful movements, a cup of coffee in his hand. She’s _his_ , by some miracle, and as he sips his coffee he marvels at how beautiful Melinda Qiaolian May is.

“I can feel you staring at my ass,” he grins at her words, because her leggings are skin tight and it’s quite a view he has.

“It’s a really, really great ass,” he replies, and Melinda looks over her shoulder at him, giving him a look that’s softened by the grin on her face as she starts in on the next segment. “How do you even _bend_ like that?”

“Come here,” she beckons him over; he raises an eyebrow before he stands up, putting his mug aside before he comes to stand beside her.

She adjusts his feet until his stance is correct, then presses her chest against his back as they bend together, hands sweeping out as she helped him even his breathing. He inhales, Melinda’s hand covering his as their knees bent, swaying forward and around, hands turning, skin sliding over each other’s.

“Your heart rate is elevated,” she murmured, her breath warm on his skin as he shivered, pulse spiking again.

“Generally happens when a beautiful woman has her hands on me,” he replied, drawing a low chuckle from Melinda; she pressed a kiss to his pulse point as they eased out of the stance together. He turned to face her, brushing her hair out of her face and pulling her towards him, kissing her lower lip as her arms wrapped around his neck.

“Ew, stop,” Maria’s voice broke them apart as she shuffled into the kitchen, opening the fridge and pulling out the orange juice.

“Don’t you have school?” Phil asked, raising an eyebrow as Melinda moved the coffee table back into position and grabbed their mugs to put in the sink. Maria shook her head, taking a sip of her juice.

“Break starts today for Sharon and I,” she answered, hanging Melinda a cup of juice, earning a smile from the older woman. “But there’s a gingerbread house competition tonight, if you want to help us.”

“I am a _great_ gingerbread house maker,” Melinda told Maria, and the teenager beamed. A sleepy-eyed Sharon shuffled down the hall, yawning widely as the belt of her robe trailed behind her. She made a beeline for Melinda, burying her face in her middle and wrapping her arms around her. “Good morning sweetheart.”

“Sharon, did you want to give Mel her present?” Julie asked as she came into the kitchen, kissing Phil’s cheek as she made her way to the coffee pot. The little blonde’s eyes lit up as she nodded, darting out of the kitchen and leaving Melinda with a curious look on her face, eyebrow raised.

“It’s not even Christmas yet,” Melinda protested, and Julie shook her head, patting Melinda’s hand.

“It’s more of a present to be used for Christmas, dear,” she assured her as Sharon came back into the room, a bundle of red fabric in her hand.

“We made you a stocking, Mel!” she exclaimed, unfolding the ball in her hands to showcase a red felt stocking with _Melinda_ written in silver glitter across the top, and silver and gold stars along the rest of the stocking. She took it, lips parting in shock as she felt the unmistakable burn of tears in her eyes.

“You made this for me?” she asked, voice going a little hoarse as she swallowed. Sharon nodded, grinning.

“You didn’t bring a stocking and we have a space on the mantle next to Phil’s for you! Mommy and Maria and I made it for you, so when you come back next year we can hang it up together!” the little girl tugged on her hand, bringing her into the living room, the rest of the family trailing behind them. The spot next to Phil’s stocking was indeed empty, and Phil helped Sharon hang Melinda’s stocking up next to it. Phil’s was Captain America themed, red, white, and blue with a small shield in the top corner, and Melinda smiled fondly.

“It looks perfect, Mommy, you were right! The mantle was waiting for her stocking,” Sharon exclaimed happily, beaming up at Melinda. “Now you’re a part of our family, Mel!”

Melinda smiled, lip trembling just a little as she nodded, letting Phil curl his fingers around hers.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” she murmured, unable to take her eyes off how nicely her stocking fit in with the rest of the Coulson family.

It didn’t alarm her nearly as much as she thought it would.


	13. Gingerbread House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sharon enlists Melinda's help in making a gingerbread house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't even explain the lack of updates- writing is hard?? Sorry for the delay, but I hope you enjoy this update that only happened because of the stress of today's election.

“Mommy’s back, Mel, do you want to help make the gingerbread house?” Sharon bounced excitedly into Phil’s room, where Melinda was responding to a few emails at the gym and checking in with Carol, who was in charge for the holidays.

“Sure- I’ll meet you out there, I just have to finish this email,” she replied, and Sharon’s pigtails bounced as she nodded before she left the room. Melinda smiled, signing off the email and sending before she shut the laptop and slid off the bed. Phil was shoveling the driveway (and likely the neighbor’s drive as well- the new couple who’d moved in next door had a new baby, and he’d spent every morning making sure their driveway was clear for them, because that was the kind of guy he was), and she watched from the view the window afforded for a moment before she headed towards the kitchen.

The kitchen is a mess of candy and icing and sheets of gingerbread- Julie was pouring everything into bowls for them as Sharon bounced excitedly at the table, Maria beside her. They both looked up in excitement at the sound of her footsteps, and Sharon patted the seat next to her for Melinda to sit.

“We have to build the house! Mommy got some milk cartons for us to cut up and use as the base so it doesn’t topple over,” Sharon told her, and Melinda nodded. “And Phil cut and cleaned this piece of wood for us to rest it on so we can carry it to the school!”

“He’s a pretty great brother,” Melinda murmured, smiling as she tucked some of Sharon’s hair out of her face. The blonde nodded eagerly, picking up a sheet of gingerbread and telling Melinda where to spread the icing for her to set it down.

Maria helped keep the pieces together until they’d built their house; Julie put it in the freezer to firm up the icing mortar while Melinda asked Sharon how she wanted to decorate it.

“We can make a path out of the red sugar sprinkles!” Sharon suggests, pointing to the shaker, and Melinda nods, setting it aside. “And can we make the windows purple Mel? Please?”

“We can do whatever you’d like, Sharon,” Melinda tells her, smiling. “Want to use the gum drops on the roof?”

“That’s a good idea!” Sharon said, lighting up. “And we can use the coconut for snow!”

Julie pulled out the house, setting it in front of them. “Go to town, ladies. I’m sure it’ll be beautiful.”

Maria set to work icing the roof while Melinda helped Sharon with frosting the base so they could stick the coconut to it- though Sharon spent more time eating the coconut than placing it.

“Can we put m&m’s on the window, Mel?” Sharon asked, picking up a few purple candies. “As the window panes?”

“I think that’s a great idea,” Melinda told her, handing her the tube of frosting to affix them to the gingerbread. “What color sprinkles do you want to do on the roof?”

“Can we do blue?” Sharon asked, and Melinda smiled, tucking some loose hair behind her ear. They both looked up at the sound of the door opening and closing- a frozen-looking Phil came into view, stomping snow off his boots and pulling off his gloves, shivering. He smiled at the sight of them, tugging his hat off his head and shrugging out of his coat.

He came to stand behind Sharon, leaning in close and touching his cold nose to her cheek, drawing a shriek of laughter from her as she shook her head.

“You’re cold Phil, stop!” she cried, giggling when his fingers danced over her sides. Melinda smiled, watching them, until Phil turned to her.

“Oh don’t even think about it,” she warned as he advanced on her, lips curling into a smirk. “Keep those freezing hands off of me, Phillip Coulson.”

“I don’t think that’s really what you want,” he replies as she backs her chair up, trying to get away from him.

“No Phil!” she said just as his arms wrapped around her waist, tugging her against him as they fell onto the couch, laughing. “You are _freezing_.”

“Guess you’ll have to warm me up,” he replies, burying his face in her neck, skin cold against hers. “You’re hot.”

Melinda snorted, though she wrapped her arms around him and pressed a kiss to the top of his head, nails raking through his short hair and drawing a shudder and low groan from him.

“I’m supposed to be helping your sisters with the gingerbread house,” she replied, and he shook his head, his grip on her tightening.

“I have commandeered your attention now,” he replies, pressing a kiss to her pulse point. “Your boyfriend needs attention.”

Melinda can’t help the smile his words bring, but she rolls her eyes, tucking herself against his chest as she grabbed the remote, flicking on the television. “Well your girlfriend wants to watch Rudolph.”

“I can handle that,” Phil replies; his hand settles on her waist, fingers resting under the hem of her shirt as they settled together to watch the movie. Melinda sighed softly in contentment, finding his free hand and twining their fingers, squeezing gently.

Not long after, Maria came and settled in the arm chair, and Sharon bounded in moments later, curling up in Melinda’s arms and beaming.

“The house looks really good, Mel, I think I’m gonna win,” she replies, and Melinda drops a kiss to her hair, hiding her smile.

“I can’t imagine any gingerbread house beating yours, Sharon,” she murmured, feeling Phil kiss her shoulder, hand squeezing her hip.

Melinda’s so content, she doesn’t even mind the snap of the camera she hears when Julie enters the room a little while later.


	14. Christmas Carnival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family attends the school Christmas Carnival.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not another two month hiatus between chapters! I am very much trying to get this finished by Christmas, I promise. Also, there's some ~heavy T-rated stuff in the beginning of the chapter, but no actual smut! You can skip to the line break once they leave the living room if that's not your thing, you won't miss anything :)

“Hey Mel, do you and Phil want to come to the Christmas carnival tonight? There’s the gingerbread house competition but there’s other stuff too, and they’re showing A Christmas Story on the big screen in the cafeteria at the end!” Sharon asked, getting off the couch and turning to face Melinda. Melinda tilted her head to look at Phil, and at his smile she turned back to the blonde, nodding.

“We’d love to join you guys,” she answered, and the little girl beamed.

“We have to leave in an hour, Mommy says,” she informs them, and Melinda sits up, stretching.

“Then I am going to take a shower and get ready,” she says, tweaking her nose before she gets off the couch. Phil follows closely behind.

“I should get ready too,” he says, and Melinda hides a snort in her hand as she walks down the hall, Phil’s hands finding her hips as his front pressed to her back.

“Are you planning on joining me in the shower?” she asked, softly as they shut the bedroom door behind them, and Phil pressed a kiss to her neck.

“If that isn’t moving too fast…” he starts, and Melinda shakes her head, turning to face him and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“I’ll start the water,” she replies, kissing him quickly before she slips into the bathroom, tugging her sweater up and over her head, tossing aside and giving him a fantastic view of her back.

He’s incredibly grateful for the built in bathroom to his room when he pulls his shirt over his head, following Melinda into the bathroom- the shower is running, but she’s just stepping out of her jeans. They’re both a little shy as he undoes his own belt buckle, but Melinda’s hands take over when his shake.

“You’re nervous,” she murmurs as his jeans hit the floor, reaching up to cup his cheek in her hand. His hands settle on her bare hips, swallowing at the wealth of warm skin in front of him. Melinda’s hands grasped his, guiding them up her torso until she settled them on her bra clasp.

His eyes met hers as he slowly undid the clasp; she drew the straps down her shoulders before she let the garment fall to the floor. He just stares for a minute, and Melinda laughs softly before she draws him into a kiss.

“Lose the boxers,” she whispered before she turned away, tugging her panties down and stepping into the shower, sighing contentedly at the heat of the spray. Phil tugged at the cotton until it hit the tile and followed her, shutting the door behind them. Melinda turned to face him and wet her hair before they traded positions.

Phil grabbed the shampoo before Melinda could, squeezing a dollop into his hand before massaging it into her hair; she gave a soft moan as his nails scratched at her scalp, lathering the soap into suds. He swallowed, heat flashing down his spine before he turned her into the spray, hand cupping her head so soapy water wouldn’t get into her eyes as he rinsed her hair. She sighed happily, hands on his chest, before she grabbed the shampoo herself. “My turn.”

Phil’s entire body relaxed as she scrubbed the shampoo into his hair, rubbing the back of his neck and pressing her wet body against his chest, kissing his jaw softly. He obliged as she washed away the suds, his hands skimming down her back, relishing the feeling of her skin against his.

When the water ran clear, Phil moved until Melinda’s back hit the tile wall, kissing her with intent; she melted against him, holding him tight to her. His hands slid over her body, touching as much skin as possible- her touch wasn’t idle either, moving from his shoulders to his neck to his arms. Melinda moaned before she gasped out his name, slippery skin moving against each other.

“I have to condition my hair,” she said against his mouth, both of them panting. “And as nice as this is, I think our first time should really be in a bed. That isn’t in the same house as your mother and sisters.”

Phil huffed out a strained laugh, though he did let her go, stepping away and running a hand down his face. Melinda picked his hand up, kissing his palm before she grabbed her conditioner- Phil took the opportunity to smack her ass before he left, drawing a laughing shout from her as he exited the shower.

Walking into the bedroom in a towel, he rifled through the clothes in his bed until he found a navy blue thermal shirt and a worn pair of jeans. He’s pulling on a pair of socks when Melinda walks into the room, wrapped in a towel and hair wet as it hangs down to her shoulders. She grins at him, kissing his cheek before she digs through her own bag, bringing out a pair of jeans and a soft-looking black sweater.

“I’m gonna go dig out the car and make sure the driveway’s clear,” he tells her after she tugs her jeans up her hips. Melinda comes to kiss him, blowdryer in hand as her palm rests over his heart.

“I should be ready in about twenty minutes,” she tells him. He watches her head back into the bathroom, chest warm, before he walks down the hall.

His mother smirks knowingly at his wet hair, and his ears are red as he shoves his arms into his coat and slides his feet into his boots. But he thinks about Melinda’s mouth on his, and it’s worth the embarrassing heat in his cheeks.

_

The school parking lot is crowded by the time they pull into it, but Phil manages to find a spot near the corner that isn’t too far a walk to the door- Sharon had very carefully held the gingerbread house in her lap during the ride, but her brother takes it for the walk through the icy parking lot. Melinda holds onto Sharon’s hand while Maria loops her arm through Julie’s, and they join the stream of people heading for the warm, brightly-lit front doors.

Sharon goes with Phil to place their gingerbread house, and Melinda watches Phil scoop his little sister up once it’s on the table, squeezing her as she grins. Once they’re back, Sharon tugs Melinda with her towards the gym where game stalls have been set up, and there’s a stand selling hot cider and mini donuts in the corner.

Maria and Sharon get in line with Julie to get cider while Phil and Melinda wander the gym hand in hand, glancing at the games. Little kids mill around, and Melinda’s chest is lighter than she’s felt in months. They’ve almost circled the gym when Phil squints at one of the adults supervising one of the games before he steps forward, bringing Melinda with him.

“Pepper Potts?” the blonde woman turns to face them, face creasing into a smile.

“Phil Coulson!” she says, hugging him as best she can around the baby bump she’s sporting. “And it’s actually Stark, now.”

“Wow, I move away and you marry Tony? Where’d your good judgement go?” Phil asked, drawing a laugh from Pepper. “Pepper, this is my girlfriend Melinda May.”

“It’s so nice to meet you,” Pepper said, shaking Melinda’s hand and smiling. “Your boyfriend was the best class secretary I ever saw.”

“You were class secretary?” Melinda asked, raising an eyebrow, and Phil shrugged.

“I may have dabbled,” he replied, color creeping up his neck, and Melinda smiled, arm wrapping around his waist. “Do you have a kid in school here, Pepper?”

“I actually teach the fourth grade,” she answers, reaching a hand out to slow a running child, giving him a look. “I’ve been here for about six years now, since Tony and I moved back when we got married. He’s heading up his own company online, Stark Industries.”

“I know, I helped with the kickstarter,” Phil told her, and she beamed, eyes warm.

“He’s looking forward to being a stay at home dad,” she adds, and Phil laughs at that, palm spanning Melinda’s back.

“When are you due?” Melinda asked, and Pepper’s smile softened as her hand touched the side of her belly.

“January 20th,” Pepper’s voice is soft and warm, and Melinda can’t help but smile.

“Well congratulations,” Melinda says, and Pepper thanks her before she’s pulled into something by a group of kids at the bean bag toss. Phil hugs her closer as they walk to the next game, a ring toss.

“Alright, I have to win my girl a plastic Christmas tree ring,” he says, letting her go as he gives the little girl running the game stand a dollar and takes the five rings from her. Melinda laughs, shaking her head fondly as Phil very seriously sets himself up to toss the rings- he misses the first three, but lands the last two, so the little girl hands him a red ring.

He turns to Melinda, catching her left hand in his and sliding the red bit of plastic on before she can blink- the air leaves her lungs as it settles just below her first knuckle, too small to go any further. Phil’s hands are warm on her skin, and her eyes meet his, unsurprised to find them as full of shock as hers. It feels so right to watch him push a ring onto her finger, right down to her bones, that it almost stuns her.

They’re interrupted before either can speak by Sharon pushing between them, two cups of cider in her hands.

“We brought you drinks! And Maria has the donuts if you want one,” she beams up at them, powdered sugar on her mouth, and Melinda smiles, brushing her hair out of her face.

“Thank you, honey,” she says, taking the cup and sipping on it. Her eyes catch Phil’s again as she takes his free hand in hers, linking their fingers together.

The plastic ring presses against her palm, and she thinks about how much nicer it would be if it were metal.


	15. Christmas Cookies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melinda tries to make cookies. It does not go well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This....got smutty I'm sorry it's probably a Really Heavy T rating this chapter? If that's not your thing feel free to skip it!

Christmas cookies can’t be _that_ hard, she tells herself.

She finds an easy-looking recipe for cut out cookies in Julie’s recipe box, and all the ingredients are in the pantry, so while Phil takes the girls sledding and Julie heads to her knitting club, Melinda sets to baking. It’s a lot of measuring and mixing and getting flour in her hair, but finally she has a ball of dough to refrigerate that she wraps in plastic wrap and sets to cleaning up her mess.

It takes some digging, but she finds the plastic cutouts- she rolls the dough out with flour like she remembers her father doing. It’s arduous, cutting out the shapes and laying them on the baking sheet, but finally she had the sheet filled and put it in the oven.

She’s in the middle of composing an email to one of the potential new partners for the gym- she’d done some googling, discovered that Betsy Braddock was exactly the kind of person she’d want to work with, and was interested in interviewing her at the beginning of the new year- when she smells it. Her nose twitches, and she frowns, inhaling a little deeper. She realizes what’s happening just as the door opens, and she runs to the oven, opening to reveal a cloud of smoke as Phil steps into the kitchen.

“I thought we agreed no baking or cooking of any kind without supervision,” he says over the now-beeping smoke alarm. Melinda glares at him, using oven mitts to wave away the smoke. Maria gets up on a chair to take down the smoke alarm, while Julie opens the kitchen windows.

“When you said she couldn’t cook, you meant it,” Maria’s nose wrinkled as she waved more smoke away, and Melinda puts on a mock-offended air, smacking his shoulder.

“Stop hitting me! You just almost set the kitchen on fire!” he exclaims, and Julie laughs quietly behind them.

“If you don’t want to sleep on the couch I suggest less talking and more smoke waving,” she tells her son, patting his back as she opens the last window. Phil shakes his head as he dumps the burned cookies in the trash, taking the bag out to bring it outside, and Maria pats Melinda’s shoulder.

“We’ll bake the rest of the cookies and let you frost them. You can’t burn that,” she tells her, and Melinda groans, resting her head on the table.

“You try to do something nice and you almost set your boyfriend’s family’s house on fire,” her words are muffled by the table, and Sharon climbs up beside her, patting her head.

“It’s okay, Mel, it’s the thought that counts! That’s what Mommy always says,” the blonde tells her, stroking her hair. “And besides, I can’t cook either! I’ll help you frost, that’s what I do every year.”

“Well thank you Sharon,” Melinda replies, reaching up to touch the little girl’s cheek, smiling up at her. Phil came back in, shaking the snow off his boots and hanging his coat back up, shivering a little as he placed his cold hands on the back of Sharon’s neck, drawing a disgruntled squeak from his little sister. “Touch me with those, you’re dead.”

Phil just smirks, touching her hips through her sweater. Melinda rolled her eyes, leaning back against him as Maria cleans off the cookie sheet and Julie lowers the temperature of the oven. “We’ll fix it babe. Don’t worry.”

Melinda just sighed, closing her eyes. “C’mon. It’ll still be here in ten minutes.”

She lets him drag her up, leading her by the hand towards his old room- the door has barely shut before his mouth is on hers. She gasps, unprepared, before she sinks into it; he pushes her onto the bed, climbing on top of her and pinning her arms above her head.

“Ten minutes. No thinking,” he pants against her lips, mouthing over her jaw until he could suck at her pulse point, drawing a gasp from her as her hand curled against the back of his neck, keeping him close.

She drew her mouth back up to his, hooking her ankle over his until his body weight was resting over hers, sighing as his hand slid down her body, landing on her hip and squeezing. Melinda scratched her nails along the length of his neck, biting on his lower lip and drawing a groan from him that sends shivers down to her toes.

She sinks into the kiss even further, tilting her head back as his mouth makes it way to her jaw- she pants, heat flashing over her skin as one of his hands slides underneath the hem of her shirt, fingers warm against her stomach, sending a flutter through her abdominal muscles. She arched into him, head throw back, and Phil’s fingers made quick work of the button of her jeans, pushing their way inside and running his fingers over her through her panties.

“ _Phil,_ ” she moaned, struggling to keep the volume down and burying her face in his neck. His thumb found her clit through the fabric, stroking the bundle of nerves before he slips them under the fabric and coming in contact with her hot, wet flesh. She bites her lip to hold back the cry, turning until her nose was pressed against his ear, her breath hot on his skin.

“Come on, baby,” Phil murmured, drawing his index finger along the length of her, watching her pupils blow out, lips parting. One finger dips inside of her, testing- then suddenly there are two there, sliding inside to the knuckle, thumb on her clit. He makes a sweeping motion, drawing his fingers together, and Melinda’s eyes slam shut, mouth opening in a silent scream.

“Oh- _oh_ ,” Melinda released a few high-pitched gasps, tightening around his fingers- Phil kissed her as she came, muffling the sound as she broke underneath him. He kept kissing her as they both panted, messy and hot and familiar.

“I have wanted to do that,” Phil tells her through pants, kissing her jaw. “For so god damn long.”

Melinda giggles at that, brushing her nose over his and darting her tongue out to wet her lips, hands in his hair.

“That was way more than ten minutes,” she tells him, breathless, and he laughs at that, leaning down to kiss her again.

“Cookies’ll be there in a little bit. They have to cool, remember?” he reminds her, and she shakes her head, fond as her palms press to his chest.

“Shirt off,” she tells him, leaning up to kiss him. “Ten minutes.”

Phil scrambled to pull the garment off, and Melinda laughed, tugging at her own shirt.

The cookies would be there.


	16. Santa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil and Melinda take Sharon to meet Santa at the mall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just straight up fluff. Nothing else.

With the Christmas cookies cooled and frosted and waiting on the counter, Julie suggests they take Sharon to the mall to meet Santa- she’d been asking for weeks, but Julie had to clean the rest of the house for the Christmas party the next day, and Maria was going to a friend’s house.

So Melinda helped Sharon change into a pretty red party dress with cute matching red velour shoes and a red bow in her hair to tie the whole outfit together. Melinda even dabs a little red-tinted chapstick onto her lips, drawing a wide grin from the little girl, and Julie demands her own picture with the three of them before they leave.

“Aren’t you just cute as a button?” she tells Sharon, tweaking her nose as the little girl gives a twirl in her dress. “Have fun, sweetie.”

“Bye Mommy, see you later!” Sharon replies before she dashes off to get into her fancy dress coat Julie had laid out, carefully doing up the buttons with Phil’s help. He picks her up to carry her to the car while Melinda puts on her own coat, taking Julie’s camera with her, bag slung over her shoulder.

Phil and Sharon already have a Christmas carol playing when she gets into the car, and she smiles as she clips her seatbelt at their off-key singing.

“You’re both terrible, you know,” she says as they pull out the driveway, waving to Scott and Hope as they pass their house, receiving waves and smiles back from the couple.

“But we’re having _fun_ ,” Phil reminds her, capturing her hand in his and holding it over the gearshift as another song starts, and Sharon taps out a rhythm with her shoes against her carseat.

The mall isn’t too far a drive from the Coulson house, but parking is an absolute nightmare- it takes twenty minutes of circling, almost getting hit by two people pulling out, and Phil nearly letting a few curses slip out before they find a spot relatively close to the Sears entrance. Phil carries Sharon on one hip and holds Melinda’s hand in the other, grateful that at least the parking lot is mostly plowed so their feet aren’t constantly sinking into the snow.

The mall itself is packed, and the line for Santa is long. They stop by Starbucks- Phil gets a coffee, Melinda gets a tea, and Sharon gets a hot chocolate- and then get in line, stuck between a family with four little boys who could not stand still and a mother and her daughter. Sharon makes easy friends with the other little girl, and Phil checks his email while Melinda simply people watches.

They move forward in the queue, and Melinda finds herself watching a small family a few feet ahead of them- a little girl who can’t be more than a year old grips her father’s fingers tightly, bouncing on her knees as she giggles at her mother, who’s sitting on the ground in front of her. The mother blows raspberries into the girl’s dress-covered belly, drawing the most delightful giggles from the little girl.

It sends warmth down into Melinda’s chest the spreads throughout her body. The want she has for that- and the reassurance she has now that that future to look forward- settles in her stomach and she links her arm through Phil’s, leaning up to kiss his cheek. He looks down at her, raising an eyebrow in question. She shrugs, kissing him again.

“Just thinking about the future,” she murmurs, playing with the top button of his coat, and it takes Phil about thirty seconds to spot the family she’d been watching. He wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her closer, kissing her forehead. He doesn’t say anything, but everything between them has always been unspoken anyway.

Nearly forty five minutes later they reached the front of the line- the woman directing everything smiled at them. “Alright guys, is this your little girl?”

“Sister, actually,” Phil corrects her as Melinda takes Sharon’s coat while getting the camera out, and Phil guides the little girl up to where Santa is waiting. Melinda snaps pictures as the little girl climbs into Santa’s lap, beaming the whole time.

“Merry Christmas Santa!” Sharon starts, and the old man behind the beard laughs.

“Merry Christmas to you- what’s your name little girl?” he asks, and Sharon bounces excitedly.

“Sharon!” she exclaimed. “Can I tell you my Christmas wish, Santa?”

“Of course!” he replies, and she leans in, stage whispering.

“I want Mel to be my sister. Officially,” Sharon tells Santa, and Melinda can’t help the burn at the back of her eyes, unable to hold in the smile. The blonde looks at her and beams, waving at Melinda. Santa leans in.

“You may want to tell your brother that wish,” he whispers, winking, and Sharon beams, reaching up to kiss his cheek before she slides off his lap. Phil scoops her up, kissing her cheek, and Melinda lets the little girl latch onto her neck, her little nose buried in her hair as she holds Melinda tight.

“You know you’re already my sister, right?” she tells Sharon, and the blonde nods, brushing some of Melinda’s hair out of her face.

“I know. I just want it to be official,” Sharon whispers, and Melinda shakes her head fondly, helping the little girl slip back into her coat.

“I’m staring- how would you ladies like some late lunch?” Phil asks, and Sharon pipes up excitedly that there’s a Red Robin in the mall. “Burgers and shakes it is.”

Melinda’s hand slides into Phil’s free one, squeezing lightly. At least he’d have someone excited to take ring shopping someday.


	17. Christmas Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the annual Coulson family Christmas party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this fic was not finished by Christmas, and will not be finished by the new year because I have out of town plans for NYE but I promise I will finish this fic! Only eight chapters to go!

Melinda had never seen Julie Coulson more stressed in her entire life.

“Julie, can I help at all?” she asked, and the redhead shook her head, hands flying through the laundry she was folding.

“No, dear, everything is already set,” Julie tells her, giving her a smile. “Now it’s just waiting for the food to finish, Nick to show up with the drinks, and the guests to arrive.”

“I’ll go get changed then. Let me know if you need any help,” Melinda stands, stretching, and Julie affectionately shoos her away as she finishes the clothes she’s folding, beginning to place them in the basket at her feet.

Phil is in the middle of attempting to tie his tie when Melinda walks in; she finishes pulling her shirt over her head and comes to help him, his hands leaving the fabric to skim down her bare sides.

“You know you look better without them, right?” Melinda tells him as she adjusts the ends of his tie, folding it over and threading the red fabric through. Phil raises an eyebrow, fingers digging into her hips, and she shrugs. “I think you look a lot sexier out of ties than in them.”

“I will…file that away,” Phil tells her, and Melinda rolls her eyes, reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss him once she’s done. “You gonna keep your hands to yourself while I change? If not, get out.”

“I’ll behave,” Phil replies, sitting on his bed and pulling his laptop out. “Nat says hi, by the way. We’ve been invited to her New Year’s Eve party.”

“That’ll be fun,” she says, shimmying out of her jeans and digging around in her suitcase. Phil’s mouth dried at the lace garter belt she slips on before she sits on the edge of the bed and slowly pulls the stockings on, hooking them to the belt.

“You pack those on every trip you take posing as someone’s girlfriend?” he asks hoarsely, and she throws a smirk over her shoulder, standing and spinning when he prompts.

“You like?” she asks, and Phil nods eagerly, drawing a laugh from her. “Maybe I’ll let you take them off tonight.”

Phil watches as Melinda slips into a stunning scarlet dress that hugs her curves and sits high on her chest, showing off her collarbones. It ends just above her knees, and she slides her feet into black flats with red bows that she confesses Shannon helped her pick out on one of their shopping excursions. His eyes are glued to her ass as she moves into the bathroom to do her make up.

He’s finishing his email to Nat when she walks out of the bathroom- her long, dark hair is up in a braided twist, knotted at the base of her skull, with a few strands framing her face. His breath catches in his chest at how beautiful she looks, and he’s moving to kiss her when she holds her hand up.

“No kissing. Not with this lipstick,” she tells him, referring to the deep red shade she’s painted her lips, matching the color of the dress almost exactly. He pouts, and Melinda rolls her eyes, reaching to carefully kiss his mouth, swiping her lips over his lips once she pulled away. “Let’s go see if your mom needs any help.”

They run into Maria in the hallway- she blushes when she tells Melinda that Bobbi was coming to the party, and Melinda wraps an arm around the other girl as they walk into the living room. There are a few people already gathered- Sharon is talking animatedly with a tall, blonde man who’s listening intently to her, and Julie is pouring drinks in the kitchen with a brunette woman and the man Melinda recognizes from picking Sharon up at school, Nick Fury.

Sharon looks up excitedly at their footsteps, tugging on Melinda’s hand. “Melinda, come meet my Uncle Steve!”

The tall blonde man smiles, and she stares for a moment, trying to place his face.

“Are you-”

“Steve Rogers? Yeah,” he answers, smiling. “I was Robert’s best friend growing up.”

“Phil didn’t tell me his uncle played Captain America,” Melinda’s eyebrow rises, and Steve laughs.

“To them I was just Uncle Steve,” he replies, shrugging. “How do you know Phil?”

“I’m his girlfriend. Melinda,” she answers, shaking his hand. It’s Steve’s turn to raise an eyebrow, looking over her shoulder at Phil, who was conversing with Fury.

“He’s a lucky guy,” he says, and Melinda smiles softly, shrugging.

“I’m the lucky one,” she corrects, just as Julie and the brunette woman bring over glasses of wine.

“Melinda this is my wife, Peggy,” he introduces the woman, and she gives a smile, shaking Melinda’s hand.

“Pleasure to meet you darling, Julie’s told me all about the woman who’s stolen her son’s heart,” Peggy’s voice is accented as she smiles at Melinda warmly. “You’re absolutely gorgeous, you know.”

Melinda flushes, unused to such a direct compliment, and she feels a hand at her waist as Phil comes to stand beside her.

“Aunt Peggy,” his tone is gently chiding, and Peggy pffts, waving her hand.

“She’s a knockout and she knows it,” she continues, taking a sip of her wine. There’s a knock, and Sharon’s given permission to pull it open, a smile splitting her face.

“Hi Scott!” she says as their neighbors step inside. Phil takes Hope’s coat as Scott hands Cassie to Julie, the older woman cooing softly at the little girl.

“Looking good, Sharon,” Scott squats down to fist bump her, drawing a giggle from the blonde. He stands, extending a hand to Melinda. “Scott Lang- this is my wife Hope, and Phil’s mom has taken hold of our daughter Cassie.”

“Melinda May,” she answers, smiling. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Cassie starts to whine, and both Scott and Hope turn to focus on their daughter as a new wave of people enters- Maria greets a blonde teenager with a hug, and Melinda takes her to be Bobbi. She winks at the brunette, causing her to blush as she hangs the other girl’s coat up.

“So. You’re Phil’s girl,” she jumps slightly at the gruff voice that comes from behind her, turning to face Fury.

“Melinda,” she adds, shaking his hand when he extends it. “You’re Julie’s guy.”

Fury raises an eyebrow at her retort before his face breaks out into a smile, a deep laugh leaving his mouth as he tilts his head back. “I like you. How the hell did Coulson manage to snag you?”

Melinda looks over her shoulder at where Phil and Sharon are messing around on the piano, laughter issuing from both of them as they banged on the keys, not even close to making music. Warmth floods her chest, and she shrugs as she turns back to Fury.

“I love him. He never needed to snag me,” she answers, brushing her thumb along the rim of her wine glass. Fury watches her with interest, a half-smile curving his lips. Melinda tucks her hair behind her ear self-consciously, taking a sip of her wine. “He’s a good man.”

“He is. Julie raised him right,” Fury replies, and Melinda nodded, eyes gravitating back to Phil as he managed to play part of Heart and Soul, Sharon bobbing her head next to him.

“Yeah, she did,” Melinda says absentmindedly, eyes on Phil’s forearms as he played. He looks up after a moment and meets her eyes, grinning, and she can’t help but grin back. Phil leaves Sharon playing a few notes he’s managed to help her string together, a hand dropping to Melinda’s waist as he kisses her. She hums against his mouth, one hand raising to touch his cheek softly.

“I can feel you staring,” he murmurs, voice low in her ear. She shrugs, fingers moving to play with his tie.

“You look good,” she replies, smoothing out the fabric. “I didn’t know you could play.”

“Took lessons from Mrs. Van Dyne for three years before I declared I hated piano and refused to walk down the street to her house,” he informed her, and she laughed, brushing the lipstick from his mouth with her thumb.

They both look up at the throat being cleared, and Melinda smiles at Maria and Bobbi.

“I just wanted you guys to meet Bobbi,” Maria starts, and the blonde steps forward, giving a smile full of braces. “Bobbi this is my brother Phil and his girlfriend Melinda.”

“Hi Bobbi, it’s nice to meet you,” Melinda said, and the blonde beams, flushing.

“It’s nice to meet you too- Maria talks about you a lot,” Bobbi informs her, and Maria flushes a little. “You’re really cool- you work at a gym? That’s what I want to do! I started karate last year and it’s so much fun.”

“I teach tai chi and martial arts,” Melinda tells her, and Bobbi’s eyes go wide as saucers.

“You teach martial arts? That is _awesome,_ ” Bobbi tells her, and Phil’s hand squeezed her waist lightly. “You’re so cool, Melinda.”

“I think so too,” Phil whispered conspiratorially and Melinda rolled her eyes, shaking her head fondly as Bobbi and Maria both laughed. “It was nice to meet you, Bobbi. Enjoy the party.”

They left the girls just as Steve and Peggy moved to join them, and made their way over to where Julie and Fury were setting out the food.

“Need any help, Mom?” Phil asks, and Julie shakes her head, popping a pretzel into her mouth.

“Everything is all set,” she replies, smiling at him. “Thank you, honey. It looks beautiful, doesn’t it?”

Phil nods, kissing his mother’s cheek as they look at the decorations and their family and friends milling around. “You did great, Mom. As always.”

“Thank you sweetheart,” she whispered back, holding her son against her side. “Now go back to talking about that beautiful girl of yours. Tony, Pepper, and Wanda just arrived.”

She nudged him towards Melinda, and he wrapped his arm around her, kissing her cheek. Melinda smiled, nestling against him, nose pressed to his jawline.

“I’m glad I came home with you,” she murmured, and Phil hugged her a little tighter, kissing the side of her head.

He didn’t have the words to answer, but then again, they’d never really needed words anyway.


	18. Ice Skating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil takes Melinda ice skating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy 2017 guys! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and here's to hoping the new year is better than last! This chapter is kind of a one-of-two chapter, so it's left a little cliffhanger-ish, but hopefully I'll have the next chapter up within the next few days!

“Get your coat,” Melinda looks up at Phil’s voice; she and Sharon are curled up on the couch, Rudolph playing on the television. The little girl had fallen asleep half an hour into the movie, but Melinda had watched as Sharon snored softly in her lap, brushing her fingers through tangled blonde curls. The party had dissipated about an hour ago, and Julie and Nick had gone for a walk through the neighborhood, since the snow had let up and the moon was out.

“It’s nearly eleven, Phil,” she whispered as Sharon shifted so her head was on a pillow, stretching out on the couch and allowing Melinda to carefully stand up. Phil just smiles, hefting a backpack up on his shoulder. Melinda can’t help but smile back, shaking her head fondly as she follows him to the coat rack.

She pulls a hat on as Phil grabs the car keys; Melinda raises an eyebrow, but follows him out to the car anyway. He takes them down back roads for about twenty minutes until they pull up to a secluded section of trees.

“Did you take me out here so now one will hear my screams?” Melinda asked, raising an eyebrow, and Phil barked out a laugh as he parked the car.

“You trust me, right?” he asked, and Melinda nodded, face softening as Phil leaned forward, kissing her. “Then follow me.”

Melinda follows him through the snow until they reach the trees, and then she gasps softly.

Nestled in the trees is a small pond, but that isn’t the gasp-worthy part- the trees around the pond are wrapped in fairy lights, twinkling in the moonlight. Melinda looks at Phil, the tips of his ears reddening as she looks back at the pond.

“How did you…”

“Stark helped,” he shrugs, rubbing the back of his neck. “You haven’t had time to skate, recently, and I know how much you love it.”

“I love you,” she replies before she can think, eyes widening involuntarily as she watched Phil’s lips part. Part of her wants to take it back, but the larger part of her doesn’t dare. “I love you, Phil.”

Phil’s entire face lights up and she can’t help the grin that slips onto her face, she rushes forward, cupping his face in her hands and kissing him, both of them smiling too hard for it to be coordinated. Her arms wrap around his neck as his fall to her waist; she laughs when he lifts her up, her toes leaving the ground as he kisses her harder.

“I love you,” he pants when they part, and she beams, leaning forward to kiss him once more. “Now, ice skating.”

He pulls the two pairs of skates out of the backpack, and lays a blanket down for them to sit on to put the skates on. Phil helps her to her feet, and they hobble to the ice- Melinda pushes off the moment her skates hit, spinning in a circle.

Melinda tilted her head back, eyes slipping closed as she spread her arms, gliding over the ice and breathing out deeply. Phil wobbles a little and watches, smiling as Melinda twirls.

“You’re really beautiful, you know that?” he says, and Melinda turns, gliding backwards as she smiles at him, shaking her head affectionately.

“Come here,” she said, stretching a hand out- Phil slowly skated forward, and Melinda’s mitten-covered fingers wrap around his until they’re skating side-by-side.

“You can’t go fast,” Phil warns, and Melinda laughs as he trips a little, her grip keeping him steady.

“You have the worst center of gravity,” she tells him as they continue to skate, Phil becoming increasingly more wobbly as they went. Phil opened his mouth to argue when his toe pick hit a rough patch, and he stumbled- he yanked on Melinda’s hand until she crashed into him, and together they fell onto the ice.

Melinda collapsed onto his chest as his back hit the ice, cold seeping through his jacket as her warmth blanketed around him, laughter erupting from her as her head fell to Phil’s chest.

“You’re so clumsy,” she laughs, body shaking as she pressed her forehead to his chest. “Our kids are going to be _so_ clumsy.”

“I don’t know, there’s your grace to balance out my clumsiness,” he replies, raising one of his gloved hands to brush her hair out of her face, grinning up at her. “And they’ll be cute, which is all that matters.”

Melinda tugs off her mitten to cup his cold cheek in her palm, thumb brushing along the bone before she leans forward, kissing him. The ice is cold under her knees, but Phil’s lips are warm, and he tugs his gloves off and slips them under her coat, warm through the fabric of her dress. She smiles, nose brushing his, before she touches her forehead to Phil’s, eye slipping closed.

“Thank you, for this,” she murmured, opening her eyes to look at him, unable to look away from the darkened blue. “You’re amazing.”

Phil just smiles, that slow, heart-stopping one that makes her knees a little weak, and when it’s focused entirely on her- her entire body feels warm despite the cold.

“There’s one more thing,” Phil says, and Melinda raises an eyebrow. Together they stand- Melinda keeps him upright, and they make it to the blanket at the edge of the pond, collapsing onto it together. “We have to drive a little, but it’ll be worth it. I promise.”

“I trust you,” she reiterated, smiling, and Phil beams, leaning over to kiss her.

“Okay- let’s go,” he says, pulling her to her feet and leading the way back to the car.


	19. Sleigh Ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The snowy date continues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short and sweet! I hope everyone's ready for the new ep- I can assure you all I am nowhere close to being prepared.

Melinda watches the scenery with interest as Phil drives for the next few minutes. Snow has begun to fall, blanketing the world like cotton. Phil parks and gets out, opening the door for her.

“Still trust me?” he asks, and at her nod, covers her eyes with his gloved hands. He leads her forward, turning them after a moment, and she feels him take a breath before he lowers his hands.

Standing in the middle of a snowy field is a sleigh- a real wooden sleigh intricately carved and inlaid with gold- attached to two large brown horses, their manes braided with red and white ribbon, and bells on their harnesses. Her lips part in shock, unable to speak as the horses shift, the bells ringing in the night air.

“Phil, how could you even…” Melinda trails off, stunned as the moonlight glints off the gold in the wood.

“Stark, again. Never pegged him as a romantic at heart, but he’s full of surprises,” he replies, voice a little rough with emotion, and Melinda turns to face him, cupping his cheeks in her hands and tugging him down to her level, kissing him.

“You’re such a nerd,” she whispered, beaming up at him. “I love it.”

Phil grins as he helps her up into the seat, following her up and draping the fleece blanket over their legs and digging out the thermos out. He took a swig before he passed it to Melinda, watching as she coughed just a little.

“That is really expensive whiskey,” she says, voice hoarse, and Phil nods as the horses begin to walk, pulling the sleigh through the snow.

“Stark always did have expensive taste,” he replies, wrapping his arm around her as she settled against him, head on his chest and hand tracing patterns on his thigh.

“It’s beautiful out here,” Melinda remarks, looking out at the snow-covered fields littered with clumps of trees. White flakes drifted down, catching in Melinda’s hair, and Phil watches as she stuck her tongue out, catching them as they were pulled across the snow.

“It is,” Phil replies, though his eyes never left her as she looked up at the moon, the white orb reflecting in her dark eyes. He smiles, chest flooding with warmth as Melinda’s head turns back to him, her own lips curving into a grin as her eyes met his.

“Would you ever want to move back here?” she asks, fiddling with the top of the thermos until it popped off, taking a swig of the whiskey inside. Phil frowned, thinking, before he shook his head.

“I spent half my life here. And I have a life in Boston now,” he answers, lifting a hand to touch her cheek, brushing her hair back behind her ear. “I’m making a life with you in Boston.”

Melinda smiles, leaning forward until she can kiss him, her lips warm in the cold of the night air. Phil sighed, tugging her closer until she was settled in his lap, small and warm and lithe in his arms. She sighs, melting into him, and Phil’s fingers twine in her hair as the sleigh jolts, nearly pitching them forward.

They’d arrived back at the horse barn, just around the corner from where Phil had parked; he helped Melinda down from the sleigh, and she nestled into him sleepily as he led her back to the car, blanket around her shoulders and thermos in her hands.

“Thank you for the perfect date,” she murmured once they were back in the car, nearly drowsing as he headed back for the house, her cold fingers finding his on the shift stick. Phil squeezed back as he drove through the snow-dusted streets, watching as she curled further into the blanket, soft snores issuing from her half-open mouth.

He smiled to himself as he pulled up to the house, and Melinda barely stirred as Phil maneuvered her out of the car, picking her up and carrying her through the door. He has her stand to take her boots and coat off, shedding his own before he lifts her back up, making his way down the hall and depositing her carefully in the center of the bed.

Melinda curled up under the covers as Phil changed into pajamas, curling up beside her and tugging the blanket up around them, her head finding its place on his chest as if it had always been meant to lay there. Phil falls asleep with a smile.

 


	20. Carols

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julie takes the family to church for Christmas Eve mass and the carols.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the delay with this chapter- my girlfriend and I just signed a lease and are preparing to move into our apartment in less than a month so I am really super busy with real life. My hope is to finish this fic before then, so cross your fingers! Only five chapters and an epilogue left!

Christmas Eve day is a flurry of activity- Julie and Phil work to get dinner prepped while Melinda wraps presents before she helps Sharon frost sugar cookies, and Maria cleans up the living room. Before any of them know it, it’s early afternoon, and Julie shoos them all to go get ready for church.

“You know I don’t…do church,” Melinda starts, and Phil nods as he slips a belt through the loops of his black pants.

“I know. And you don’t have to pray, or anything. But it’s important to Mom that we go,” he replies, and he offers her a smile. “The choir is really good, too, they practice all year for tonight.”

He comes to stand next to her, his hands cupping her jaw as he bends to kiss her, and she sinks into him, arms looping around his back.

“You’re a good son, you know,” she tells him, smiling at the blush that crept up his neck. She pecked his chin before she slipped out of his grasp, tugging on the slim black dress and offering her exposed back to him. “Zip me?”

Phil took the small zipper at the base of her spine in his fingers and slowly dragged it up; his fingers brushed over her soft, warm skin, sending a shiver down her back. They’re both breathless by the time he finishes, and he swallows, kissing her pulse point lightly. “All done.”

The huskiness of his voice sends another shiver through her, and her mouth is dry as she slips into the bathroom to do her hair and makeup, leaving him to collect himself and finish getting dressed. He leaves his tie dangling around his neck, knowing Melinda is better at tying it than he is- he checks the bathroom door once more before he slips out, and heads down the hall.

He knocks once before he calls out. “Hey Mom? You got a second?”

When he gets an affirmative response, he steps into the room, shutting the door with a soft click behind him- his mother is stepping into her shoes, and she smiles when she sees him.

“You look wonderful, sweetheart,” she tells him, turning to face him, and his lips curve into a smile.

“Thanks Mom,” he replies, hands in his pockets, and Julie raises an eyebrow.

“Something on your mind, Phil?” she asks, and he clears his throat, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

“You know how you said, when I’d found the one, you’d give me Grandma’s ring?” he asks, and Julie’s eyes widen as her lips part. “Mel’s her, Mom. I know she is.”

The shock filters out of Julie’s face, replaced by a small and knowing smile, her blue eyes warm as she wordlessly turns to the walk-in closet- she disappears inside for a few moments and Phil fidgets while he waits. Finally, Julie appears with a small green velvet box, and she places it in his hands.

Phil opens it slowly, and the beauty of his grandmother’s engagement ring still leaves him breathless. It’s a princess cut diamond surrounded by a cluster of emerald shards that reflected off the light, sending green shimmers through the air. It was exactly the kind of ring he wanted to propose to Melinda with- someday, not now, but in the future- and he snapped the box closed, slipping it into his pocket as he leaned over to kiss his mother’s cheek.

“I knew it would be her,” Julie murmurs, touching Phil’s cheek tenderly. “The moment I met her, I knew she would be the one for you. I’m glad you finally caught up, sweetheart.”

Phil smiled, fingers touching the ring box outline in his pocket. “Me too, Mom. Me too.”

He leaves her to finish getting ready, and with the bathroom door still closed, slips the box into the bottom of his bag. When Melinda leaves the bathroom, hair in a half up-do that leaves a handful of ringlets cascading down her back and a dark crimson lipstick that leaves him breathless, he knows he’ll be pulling that ring out sooner than even he’d anticipated.

_

The church isn’t anything like Melinda is expecting- it’s a small, modest building with less than a hundred pews and a small alter, and a decent-sized choral box behind it that was filled to the brim with people.

Julie leads them to one of the center pews, and they file in together- Sharon immediately climbs into Melinda’s lap, and Maria takes her hand while Phil wraps an arm around her. Julie chats with a few women who sit around them, and a handful of old ladies crow over how handsome Phil has gotten and what a beautiful young lady Maria was blossoming into and how adorable Sharon was.

Melinda doesn’t even mind the mass- the children’s pageant is adorable, and draws quite a few laughs from the crowd. Phil’s thumb draws circles over the round of her shoulder, and Sharon snuggles into her, keeping her warm.

When the choir starts, Melinda’s jaw drops. For the choir of a tiny Midwestern Wisconsin church, they sounded- literally- like angels. The entire church was silent as the men and women sang, and Melinda found herself captivated.

Sharon sang softly under her breath, playing with the hem of Melinda’s dress, and Maria’s head had fallen onto Julie’s shoulder. Melinda turned to look at Phil and he smiled at her, bending a little to press his lips to hers; she smiled against his mouth, and he pecked her mouth once more before pulling away as the choir started another song.

When they were finally done, the entire church stood and applauded, and Melinda couldn’t help but smile at the blushing faces of the people bowing in the choral box. Julie seemed to know quite a few of them, and when mass was over and the congregation spread out through the small building, the redheaded woman was hugging them all as they filtered past.

“Your mom’s popular,” she muses, and Phil laughs, holding a sleepy-looking Sharon in his arms, her head on his shoulder and arms around his neck.

“She plays bridge with a lot of them, and she goes to a lot of the church’s bingo nights,” he replies, affection in his face. “They helped her a lot, when Dad died.”

Melinda’s fingers wrapped around his, and Maria linked her arm through Melinda’s free one as Julie finally made her way over to them.

“Alright guys, ready to head home and eat dinner?” she asks, cheeks flushed with happiness, and they all nod. “Thank you for coming. It means a lot.”

Maria lifted up on her toes, kissing her mom’s cheek. “Anything for you, Mom.”

Julie beamed, leading them out of the church.


	21. Reindeer Food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melinda learns another Coulson family Christmas tradition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in two days! It's a Christmas-in-February miracle.

“Dinner was delicious, Julie,” Melinda tells her, setting her napkin on the table and smiling at the redhead; Julie smiled back, touching her shoulder as she walked by with a stack of now-empty plates.

“Thank you, dear. I’m glad you enjoyed it,” she says, shaking her head when Melinda stands to help put the dishes away. “Don’t even think of it- Sharon and Maria are picking out our Christmas Eve movie. I’ll be along in a minute.”

Melinda goes reluctantly, nearly stumbling into Sharon as she heads for the living room.

“It’s time to get in ‘jamas, Mel!” she informs her, taking her hand and tugging her down the hall. “We always watch the movie in pajamas, then we set out the cookies for Santa!”

“I’ll meet you out here, okay?” Melinda said, and Sharon nodded vigorously before darting off to her room.

Phil is in the middle of pulling his shirt off when she slips into his bedroom; he looks up and smiles, tossing the shirt aside as she closes the door.

“Hi,” she murmurs, stepping forward, and Phil’s hands finds her hips as she rises onto her tiptoes to kiss him. He hums against her mouth, tugging her closer, and she pushes off the ground, overbalancing him until he fell onto the bed. She straddled his hips, kissing him again, until he turned them abruptly until she was underneath him, panting.

Melinda grinned, hands running over the stubble on his chin- but when he bent to kiss her again, there was a knock on the door.

“Are you almost ready, Phil? Melinda? Maria’s all set!” Sharon called, and chastised, they quickly got into their pajamas and returned to the living room. There’s a large bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, and Maria and Sharon are in their pajamas- Julie passes them, telling them she’ll be right there after she gets in her own pajamas.

Sharon directs them to their section of couch, settling on Melinda’s free side while Sharon takes the lounger, and when Julie returns, she has the arm chair.

“It’s Elf time!” Sharon cries happily, and Melinda smiles into Phil’s shoulder as the little girl starts the DVD.

Sharon and Maria manage to quote most of the film- even Phil mutters a few lines under his breath, and Melinda merely snuggles further into him, content.

She strokes her fingers absently over the hem of Phil’s shirt, eyes slipping shut- Sharon nudges her awake when the movie is over, face pressed closed.

“Mel, we’re gonna sprinkle reindeer food, do you wanna help?” she whispers loudly, and Melinda smiles softly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Sure, honey,” she murmured, sitting up slowly and stretching, a yawn falling from her lips. Phil wraps an arm around her while they stand, and he helps her put her boots and coat on. “Phil what’s reindeer food?”

“It’s something my mom started when I was a kid- it’s basically oat flakes and glitter and cinnamon all shook together in a plastic bag that you leave out for the reindeer,” he explains, zipping her coat up. “We throw some carrots out too.”

Melinda shakes her head fondly, rocking up onto her tiptoes to kiss him softly. “You have the weirdest traditions out here.”

“And you’re gonna learn them all,” he replies, and she beams up at him, sleep still dusting her eyes.

“I know,” she murmurs, and Phil wraps his arm around her as they wait for the rest of his family.

It’s cold and snowing outside, and Melinda shivers as they step out into the snow of the front yard- Sharon has a few cleaned carrots, and Maria carries a plastic baggie with her. Julie has her camera around her neck, and she takes off the lid as she smiles.

“Okay Sharon, toss those carrots!” she says, and Sharon grins for the camera before she turns, tossing the orange vegetables into the steadily-falling snow.

“The reindeer are going to have so much to eat!” Sharon cries out, joy in her eyes, and Melinda leans even more against Phil, smiling.

“We still have to do the reindeer food too, Sharon,” Maria reminds her, shaking the bag, and Sharon skips over to her- she dips her hand inside, then waits for everyone to take their own handful. When everyone is ready and Julie has her shot lined up, they all toss the reindeer food into the air. Glitter and oats fly through the air with the snow, and Melinda smiles, watching it spiral to the earth.

Sharon and Maria throw the rest together, and Melinda rests her hands on Phil’s chest as she reaches up to kiss him, sighing softly against his mouth. He rested his forehead against hers, breathless, and she smiles.

“Merry Christmas, Phil,” she murmured, and he kissed the tip of her nose, licking a snowflake away.

“Merry Christmas, Lin,” he whispers back, and when they kiss again and can hear the click of a camera, neither of them really mind.


	22. Christmas Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas morning in the Coulson house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out! I moved in with my girlfriend and life is just super busy, but I'm really hoping to get the last four chapters out relatively soon.

She rouses at the soft kiss against her mouth, smiling as she opens her eyes.

“Good morning,” she murmurs, and Phil kisses her again, holding her against him. His hand wound into her hair and they rolled until she was resting on his chest, nose brushing his. “Well that’s certainly the best Christmas morning wake up I’ve ever had.”

“I love you,” he said, voice rough with sleep, and she smiled, bending to kiss him again.

“I love you too,” she whispered, rubbing her nose over his. “C’mon, I bet Sharon’s awake.”

She pulls him from the bed, stealing one of Phil’s sweatshirts and going to brush her teeth while he pulls on a pair of flannel pajama pants. He wraps his arms around her, chin on her shoulder as he meets her eyes in the mirror- she shakes her head fondly, turning to kiss his cheek.

“Stop staring at me like that, I have bedhead and no makeup,” she chides softly, and he shakes his head, holding her tighter and brushing his lips over her pulse point.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he tells her, and her heart stops a little at the burning sincerity of his gaze. She leans her head against his, placing her hands over his that spanned her waist and squeezing a little.

“Alright, sappy, let’s go meet your family,” she nuzzles her nose into his jaw before she nudges him towards the door. Melinda’s opening the door to the hall when a blur of blonde hair tackles her, nearly knocking the wind from her.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS PHIL AND MEL,” Sharon’s shout is only vaguely muffled by her face in Melinda’s waist, and she strokes her hair, smiling fondly.

“Merry Christmas Sharon. Is everyone else up?” the blonde looks up and nods, grinning as she hugged Melinda’s waist tighter.

“Mommy’s making coffee for her and Phil and tea for you,” she tells her. “And Maria’s already sorting the presents.”

“Let’s go help, shall we?” Melinda asked, and Sharon took her hand, pulling her forward and leaving Phil to trail behind them. Phil goes to help his mother in the kitchen while Melinda sat where Sharon directed, a pile of presents growing at her feet.

Phil settles beside her, handing her a mug of tea- she can see the splash of milk he put in, and she settles into his side as he throws his arm across the back of the couch. Julie is directed to the armchair where Sharon and Maria have gathered her presents, and they each have their own piles.

Melinda watches as the younger girls tear into their gifts, paper flying everywhere as their faces crease in happiness and awe.

“C’mon Phil, open yours!” Sharon pushes some boxes towards him, and Phil sets his mug of coffee aside and sits forward.

The first present is a collection of comic t-shirts, and Maria beams at his exclamation of joy when he reveals the Cap and Hulk ones she’d picked out. Melinda watches fondly as he also opens a new watch from Julie, and two books he’d wanted from Sharon.

“Those were the ones you wanted, right Phil? Mommy helped me find them,” Sharon looks worried, and Phil’s quick to reassure her, pulling her into his lap and pressing kisses to her cheeks, drawing giggles from the little girl.

“They’re perfect, Sharon- just what I wanted,” he tells her, and Sharon beams.

“What’d you get Mel, Phil?” she asks, and Phil suddenly looks a little nervous. He shifts, digging out a small, wrapped box, and she takes it from her, looking at him curiously.

She snags the corner of the paper with her nail, revealing a small white box- she looks up at Phil, frowning, before she opens it. Inside is a golden key, and her lips part in shock as she looks up again, finding his eager, terrified-looking face.

“Phil, is this-” she starts, and he swallows, nodding, before he cuts her off.

“Your lease is up at the end of the month- move in with me,” his words string together a little in his excitement to get them out, and Melinda’s eyes tear up a little as she takes the key out, running her fingers over the edge. “If it’s too soon, we can-”

“Yes,” she interrupts, looking up and beaming. “Of course I’ll move in with you, Phil.”

She leans over, hands on his face as she kisses him- he tastes like coffee and the Christmas cookie he clearly snuck on his way back to the living room, and they break apart, laughing, when Julie and Maria start clapping. Melinda flushes, pulling away, but Julie simply beams, face full of contentment.

“Oh, you two- I’m so happy for you,” she gushes, drawing a deeper blush from Melinda.

“What did you get Phil, Melinda?” Maria pipes up, and Melinda picks up the slim box, handing it to Phil.

He pulls off the ribbon, carefully peeling off the paper, and pulls the top of the box. Inside is a comic in a plastic sleeve, and Phil looks at it in awe, carefully takes it out of the box.

“Melinda, how did you even…” he trails off, and she smiles.

“I went through five different eBay bidding wars to get that vintage Cap comic,” she tells him, and he looks up at her. “I know you’ve been looking for that one to add to your collection.”

“I love you,” he tells her in total seriousness, leaning over to kiss her firmly, stealing her breath as his hand twines in her hair, hauling her impossibly closer until Sharon giggles from her spot on the floor, poking both their knees.

“It’s breakfast time!” she exclaims, and they pull apart, both a little breathless. “Phil, can you make waffles?”

“With rainbow sprinkles?” he asks, and she nods, blonde hair flying. “Alright, to the kitchen! You’re my sous chef, right Sharon?”

“Yes sir!” she salutes him, and Phil laughs.

“Okay, let’s teach Melinda how to make our famous Coulson waffles,” Phil stands, and Sharon nods, tugging on Melinda’s hand until she stood as well.

“We’ll clean up in here, meet you guys in the kitchen,” Julie tells them, smiling, and Phil kisses the top of her head as they walk past to the kitchen.

“This is the best Christmas ever,” Sharon sighs happily as she climbs onto her stool in the kitchen to wash her hands, and Melinda smiled, wrapping her arms around the little girl, kissing her cheek. “I’m so happy you’re here, Mel.”

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” she tells her, and Sharon beams, turning and wrapping her arms around Melinda’s neck. Melinda hugged her tightly, smiling at Phil as he watched them, leaning against the counter and immeasurable softness in his eyes.


	23. Nativity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Early Christmas morning means Christmas midday naps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a really short filler chapter because I realized I added some stuff to last chapter that was supposed to go in this chapter, oops. The last three chapters are planned out and just need to be cleaned up and edited- we're almost done!

Once breakfast was eaten and subsequently cleaned up, and Sharon and Maria were sorting through their piles of toys, Sharon looked up at the mantle, frowning, before she spoke up.

“Mommy, can I put the baby in?” she asks, and Julie looks up, lips parting.

“I forgot all about the nativity, of course you can sweetheart,” Julie said, heading for a small wooden box at the corner of the mantle- she opens it, pulling out a small ceramic Jesus in a manger, and Phil scoops Sharon up onto his hip. Julie hands Sharon the piece of white ceramic, and Phil holds her up so she can settle it in the old wooden manger among the hay and other figurines.

“Perfect,” Sharon said, settling back with her arms around Phil’s neck, cheek pressed against his.

“Excellent job, Sharon,” Julie tells her, smiling as she tucked some unruly blonde hair behind her youngest’s ear, touching her cheek. “Dinner at your aunt’s isn’t for another few hours, and both of you look a little tired- why don’t we all lay down for a bit?”

They all nod at her suggestion, and Phil carries Sharon to her room, Melinda trailing behind and watching in the doorway as he tucks her in, her blue eyes already blinking slower.

“Thank you for my presents, Phil,” Sharon murmured sleepily, and Phil smiled, brushing her hair out of her face.

“You’re welcome, Sharon. Thanks for mine,” his voice is soft, and he leans down, kissing her forehead. “Merry Christmas, Agent Coulson.”

“Merry Christmas Agent Coulson,” she mumbled back, already slipping off to sleep, and Phil carefully backed out of the room, Melinda shutting the door softly before she followed Phil down the hall to his room, fingers tangled together.

As soon as the door was shut, he bent his head to brush his mouth over hers- one, two, three gentle brushes leads to his hands twining in her hair to pull her closer as she licked at his bottom lip, tasting coffee and pancakes. She sighed as he opened his mouth to hers, and he backed her up until her knees hit the edge of the mattress.

He tumbled down over her, holding his weight above her as he kissed along her jaw, drawing a soft sigh from her as her nails scratched through the hair at the base of his skull. His palm slid under her shirt, rough against the warm, smooth skin of her stomach.

“You’re moving in with me,” he murmured against her mouth, feeling her grin, and she nodded, nails dragging down his neck lightly and drawing a shiver from him.

“I’m moving in with you,” she confirmed, voice soft as she brushed her thumbs along his cheekbones, dropping to his mouth. “I love you, Phil.”

She watched the smile that overtook his face, those blue eyes she loved so much shimmering in the low light of his bedroom, and Phil leaned down, kissing her again and stealing her breath as she arched against him, humming softly. He nipped at her lower lip, but before she could respond, her lips parted in a yawn, pushing him away, and he laughed, settling beside her and drawing her into his arms.

“C’mon, let’s get some sleep,” he said, drawing the covers up around them and kissing the top of her head as she settled against him, head tucked under his chin.

“Thank you for the best Christmas,” she whispered, voice dripping with sleep, and Phil hid his smile in her hair, holding her tighter.

“The first of many, I promise,” he told her, and she snuggled closer, nose in his shirt and palm over his heart.


	24. Toasts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas Night dinner at Steve and Peggy's prompts a romantic toast from Phil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost finished! Just one more chapter and then an epilogue. Thanks so much for sticking with me you guys!

The party at Steve and Peggy’s is loud and warm; everyone was milling around the dining and living rooms- Melinda recognizes most of them from the Coulson Christmas party.

She shifts her weight in her heels- she hates them, but the dark shoes elongate her legs and go well with the slim black dress she’s wearing, the neckline beaded and dipping low on her chest. She’d paired it with the diamond earrings Julie had gifted her, and a necklace Phil had given her in private, a jade stone nestled just above her breasts.

“Man my uncle can talk,” she looks up as Phil walks up to her, handing her the tumbler of whiskey before he kisses her cheek, making her flush. “Sorry it took so long.”

“It’s fine. I chatted with your Aunt Carol for a bit,” she tells him, and his lips quirk into a smile.

“I haven’t seen her in years, she moved to New York when I was in high school,” his hand slid to rest at her waist, and she settled against him. A flurry of small children scrambled past their knees, one little girl with dark hair leading them, and warmth settles in Melinda’s chest.

“Do you think about it?” she asks, feeling Phil hold her a little tighter as his mouth dips in confusion. “Kids. Our kids.”

Phil’s arm tighten around her, and his lips curve into a slow smile as he nods, bending to nuzzle into her neck. “I do. Now more than ever.”

Melinda’s hand rose to cup the back of his head, fingers playing with the hair at the base of her neck.

“It’s always a girl,” she admits softly, thumb brushing against his skin. “With dark hair, and your eyes.”

“She always looks like you,” he tells her, kissing her pulse point. “She’s got your smile.”

He pulls back to look at her, thumb brushing along her lower lip, gaze dropping to the way her tongue unconsciously darted out, brushing his finger. Phil leaned forward, kissing her gently, and she sighed, sinking into him.

“Gross,” they broke apart at Maria’s voice, though Phil kept her close to his side as Melinda took a sip of her drink. “I came to find you guys, it’s dinner time.”

“Lead the way,” Phil replied, hand dropping to Melinda’s lower back as they followed the brunette teenager to the dining room.

The kids table was full, Sharon giggling with a few of Steve and Peggy’s grandchildren, and she waved at them as they made their way to where Julie was already seated beside Peggy. Phil pulled out Melinda’s chair, ever the gentleman, and she settled in her seat, her hand finding his under the table, linking their fingers.

Once the entire table was seated and settled, Steve stood up from his place at the head of the table, raising his glass of scotch, a smile curving his mouth.

“First off, Merry Christmas everyone- we’re so thankful to see everyone back here again,” he starts, looking around the table. “Another year has passed; we’ve lost some family, but we’ve also gained some,” his smile is directed at Melinda, and she flushes a little as she feels all eyes settle on her. “It’s been a wonderful holiday season, and Tony’s New Year’s party is sure to kickstart 2017 on a high note.”

“It always does,” Tony replies, a grin on his face- Pepper smacked his shoulder, rolling her eyes.

“As always, I’ll leave the table open for toasts,” Steve said, raising his glass before he sat, and there’s a pause before Phil stood, clearing his throat and raising his tumbler of whiskey.

“I usually bow out of these toasts,” Phil starts, and Julie gives him an encouraging smile. “But I have a reason to toast, this year, and I don’t want to pass an opportunity to talk about the woman I love.”

Melinda blinks, cheeks turning pink, as Phil looked down at her with a soft, warm smile.

“I met Melinda freshman year of college, in a dance class elective that she dropped two weeks later,” he starts, lips curving upwards fondly. “I found her a week after that arguing with the barista at the campus coffee cart that their so-called caffeinated tea was actually decaf. I knew, right then and there, I had to talk to her. So, obviously, I promptly spilled coffee all over her shirt.”

Melinda gives a soft laugh at that, shaking her head fondly as the laugh is echoed around the table.

“Needless to say, it was a rocky start,” Phil laughs. “But it was easy to become best friends. So easy, I can’t imagine my life without her- I wouldn’t have been able to start my store, or find an apartment, or navigate Boston without her.”

He swallows, glancing down at her before he continues.

“I didn’t realize it at the time, but I’d met the love of my life,” emotion clogs his voice at the end of his sentence. “I’m so thankful to have spent this holiday season with her- the first of many, if I have anything to say about it.”

Phil lifts his glass, eyes locked with Melinda’s. “To love. And the future.”

The toast was echoed around the table, and Phil sipped his whiskey before he sat back down and leaned over, cupping Melinda’s jaw in his hand and kissing her. She sighed, kissing him back and licking whiskey from his lower lip.

“I love you,” she murmured, reaching a hand up to stroke his cheek, dark eyes warm as they meet his- Phil smiled, thumb on her chin as he kissed her again.

“I love you more,” he replied softly, and Melinda shook her head, lips curved into a small, soft smile and affection clear in her face.

“Let’s eat!” Steve called, lifting his fork, and they settled in to dinner, the clink of silverware against china.

Melinda’s hand didn’t leave Phil’s the whole meal.


	25. Fireplace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil and Melinda return to Boston.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All that's left is the epilogue, which I'm nearly finished with- I may even have it up later, if I can get my butt in gear. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Mostly fluff and a little bit of kissing. Thanks for sticking with me, friends!

“I don’t want you to go,” Sharon’s voice is muffled by her face being buried in Phil’s middle, and he stroked a hand over his sister’s head, ruffling her blonde locks.

“You and Mom and Maria are going to come visit Melinda and I for Easter- that’s only a few months away,” Phil reminds her, carefully sinking to his knees so he’s level with Sharon, brushing her hair out of her face and wiping the tears off her cheeks.

“And I’ll teach your brother how to use Skype, and you can call us whenever you want,” Melinda tells her, pulling a giggle from the little girl and a mock-disgruntled look from Phil. “We’re always just a phone call away. Promise.”

“Okay,” Sharon replied softly, wrapping her arms around Melinda tightly and burying her face in her neck. “I’m really glad you came for Christmas, Mel.”

“Me too,” Melinda whispered, kissing Sharon’s cheek as she pulled away and tweaking her nose gently. She stood, wrapping Maria in a hug that the teenager burrowed into, nose pressed to her collarbone and hands gripping the back of her shirt tightly. “I mean that. You call me, whenever, and I’ll pick up.”

“I know,” Maria whispered, trying to hug her tighter, and Melinda rubbed the brunette’s back before she pulled away and cupped her cheeks.

“You’ve got a big sister now and I’m not going anywhere,” Melinda promises, and Maria beams, throwing her arms around her once more before she goes to hug Phil goodbye, and Julie comes to hug Melinda.

“You two have a safe flight, and let us know when you’re home and settled,” she said, brushing Melinda’s braid off her shoulder and touching her cheek with gentle fingers. “I’m so glad you came to stay with us this week, sweetheart. And I’m so happy you two are happy- truth be told, I’ve been pulling for the two of you for a while.”

Melinda flushed, ducking her head, and Julie’s fingers are soft under her chin until Melinda lifted her gaze.

“Even if you thought I wouldn’t be able to tell you weren’t actually dating the first night you were here,” is her next whisper, and she winks- Melinda’s lips part, shocked into silence, and Julie drops a kiss to her cheek before she moves to her son, leaving Melinda stunned.

It’s Phil’s hand at her back when their flight is announced over the loudspeaker that jolts her back to reality, and she swallows hard, waving at the Coulson girls before letting Phil twine their fingers together as they head for the gate. They’re settled in their seats when she turns to him, raising an eyebrow.

“Your mother knew we weren’t really dating when we got here,” she tells him, and Phil scoffs.

“Of course she didn’t know,” he replies, and she leans forward.

“Phil, she _just told me_ she knew,” she emphasizes, and his eyes widen, lips parting.

“But we were so convincing,” he protests, and Melinda shakes her head fondly at that, leaning forward to kiss him softly, hands on his cheeks.

“Well, we’re not faking anything now,” she reminds him, and his fingers wrap around hers as the flight attendant begins the seatbelt demonstration. He leans closer, whispering in her ear.

“I never was.”

_

Melinda groans at the sheer amount of mail waiting for her in her mail slot, picking up an array of bills and holiday cards and magazines. She dumps the lot on her kitchen counter beside her keys, settling her purse on a chair and shrugging out of her coat.

She doesn’t feel like unpacking- it feels pointless, considering she’s moving in with Phil and may as well just starting dumping her stuff in his apartment. So she leaves her bags by the door and starts sorting through the mail, opening a few holiday cards and smiling at Izzie and Victoria’s sons dressed up as reindeer, sticking it on her fridge next to a polaroid of her and Sharon and Maria Julie had given her.

She looks up at the knock on her door, smiling as Phil lets himself in.

“You feel like pizza? I don’t want to cook,” he says as he settles at her counter, and she nods, opening one of her bills and scanning thorough it. Phil frowns, picking up a long, slim envelope and handing it to her. “Mel? It’s from Andrew.”

She takes the envelope from him, frowning- it’s a letter, she can tell, and she knows it’s because she’s been ignoring his emails and she’d blocked his number. She contemplates it for a moment before she tears it in half and throws it in the trash, pouring the milk she’d forgotten about in her fridge over it.

“I don’t want to hear what he has to say,” she tells Phil simply when he gapes at her. “I have you. I’m happy. His loss.”

Phil gives a soft laugh at that, tugging her around the counter until he can pull her between his legs and kiss her. She sinks into it, nipping at his lower lip as she sighed, hands coming to slide into his hair as his slid to grip her ass. Her fingers pluck at the hem of his t-shirt as they break apart, panting.

“No little sisters around…” she starts, invitingly, and backs up- she pulls her own shirt over her head, revealing a red lace bra that draws a groan from Phil.

He’s out of the chair in an instant.

_

“We didn’t even make it to bed,” Melinda snuggles into Phil’s skin, stretched out on the rug in front of the fireplace. Phil had turned it on to ward off the chill of the room, wrapping a blanket around them so they didn’t have to put their clothes back on.

She traced a path through the freckles covering his chest, pressing a kiss over his heart, and Phil’s hand twined in her hair, playing with the long, silky strands. He pulled her up, meeting her mouth in a slow, heated kiss, and she melted against him.

“We’ll get there eventually,” Phil replies, and his voice is low and rumbling and heat spills down her spine as she shivers. She twines their fingers together, head resting on his chest, and sighs in contentment.

“I love you,” she murmurs, palm flat over his heart, and Phil holds her impossibly closer. “This has been the best Christmas I’ve ever had.”

She tilted her head, brushing her thumb over his lower lip, her own lips quirking into a smile.

“Now take me to bed,” she whispers, and Phil raises an eyebrow before he stands- she’s cold for a moment before he scoops her up into his arms, drawing a laugh from her as she wiggles, clutching at him. “You’re going to drop me!”

Phil stops in the hallway, looking at her seriously. “I’d never let you get hurt, Melinda.”

She softens, lifting a hand to cup his cheek and smiling at him. “I know, honey.  It’s why I fell in love with you in the first place. I’ve always felt safe with you.”

She lifts herself up, kissing him messily, and panting when she pulls away.

“I have another Christmas gift to give you, and I’m pretty sure I left it under the covers.”


	26. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Six years later...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! It's done, you guys! Finally, nearly fifteen months later, this story is completed. It's my heart and soul, and I am sad to be done with it, but I am so, so proud of it. Thank you to everyone who's kept up with this story, and told me how much they love it. I would never have finished it if not for you guys, so thank you so much for reading! I hope you love this epilogue as much as I do.

_Six years later_ …

The kisses pressed against her shoulders are what wake her; she shifts, stretching against the wall of warmth behind her.

“Merry Christmas, Lin,” Phil murmurs, and she smiles, eyes still closed as she shifts awkwardly, turning to face him, pressing as close as the curve of her belly allowed.

“Merry Christmas, Phil,” she replies, leaning forward to kiss him, lips curving into a grin at the kick against his palm, pressed against her.

“I say we have five minutes before a certain someone joins us,” he predicts, and Melinda nods, snuggling closer, sighing softly. They’d gone to bed late, setting out presents from Santa and cleaning up the remnants of last night’s dinner, listening to Lian and Julie chatter away, Sharon attempting to stay up as late as Julie would allow.

It’s about three minutes of dozing before there’s the pitter-patter of tiny feet, and then their door is pushed open, creaking softly. The mattress shifts as a tiny body climbs onto it, crawling up and collapsing between them, a tiny face beaming up at them.

“Merry Chriff’maf!” Daisy Coulson exclaimed, air whistling through her missing two front teeth. Melinda and Phil both attacked her with kisses, drawing giggles from their little girl as she squirmed between them.

“Merry Christmas sweetheart,” Melinda whispered as Daisy cuddled up next to her while Phil got up, making his way to the bathroom to grab his robe and brush his teeth. Daisy reached up, kissing her cheek before she carefully patted Melinda’s belly.

“Merry Christmas to you too baby,” she says, laughing at the movement against her palm. “Can we go open presents Mommy?”

“Why don’t you go see if your aunts are awake?” Melinda suggested, and Daisy’s face lit up as she nodded, bouncing for a moment before she slid off the bed, bounding down the hall. Melinda hauled herself to her feet, shrugging into her robe and padding into the bathroom, rubbing at her lower back as she yawned.

She brushed her teeth, standing sideways to spit, rolling her eyes as Phil laughed, kissing her neck when he walked past, fingers skimming down her arm.

“Feeling okay?” he asked, and she nodded, following him out of the bathroom.

“My back just hurts a lot. I’m gonna need a nap later. I don’t function the same way on five hours of sleep anymore,” she replies, giving him a smile as she twines their fingers together. They meet Daisy pulling a still-yawning Sharon and a crusty-eyed Maria followed by a bright-eyed Bobbi, with Julie and Lian not far behind, looking more put together than the former family members.

“Merry Christmas everyone,” Melinda says, smiling, receiving various smiles in return. Phil takes Daisy’s hand and lets her lead him down the stairs, the little girl gasping at the various presents spilling out from under the tree, eyes lit up in excitement upon discovering the cookies she’d left out eaten and the milk gone.

Phil helped Melinda get settled on the couch as Daisy began to dig through the presents, Julie sitting beside her and Sharon at her feet, head on her knee as she grinned up at her.

“So Mel, we thinking baby today?” she asks, batting her eyelashes up at her, and Melinda snorts, taking the cup of tea Phil brings her with a soft smile.

“Just because I’m due on Christmas Day doesn’t mean this little girl is actually coming today, Sharon,” she reminds her, shifting a little and wincing, rubbing at her side. “Alright, let’s not kick Mom’s kidney, okay little one?”

“Mama, can I open?” Daisy asks, holding up a gold-wrapped box, and Melinda nods as Phil settles beside her, letting her lean into him, head on his shoulder. Daisy sticks her tongue out, working on ripped the taped-together paper, finally revealing the President Barbie she’d been hounding them about for months. “Mommy, it’s Barbie!”

Melinda smiled as Daisy excitedly examined the doll, showing her to Bobbi, who oohed and ahhed in excitement, grinning down at her.

“This one is for you, Maria,” Daisy told her, digging through the pile and handing the slim box to her aunt. “It’s from Bobbi!”

Maria look at her fiancé, raising an eyebrow, and ripped the ribbon holding it closed- her eyes widened as she pulled out two tickets. “We’re going to see Imagine Dragons? How on earth did you score these?”

“The lead singer works out at my gym,” Melinda admits, and Maria’s eyes nearly bug out of her head.

“Holy shit.”

“Language, please,” Phil glares at his sister, but Daisy is too excited helping Julie and Lian open their gifts to have overheard. Melinda winces again, shifting, her hand going to her side, and her eyes widen.

“Oh, shit,” she says, and before Phil can make a language comment, she’s gripping his arm. “So I retract my statement about this kid not coming today.”

Sharon practically leaps up, blue eyes alight. “Are you serious?”

“As serious as the back labor I’m experiencing right now,” she replies, gritting her teeth and sinking her nails into Phil’s forearm. “Honey, I think we should probably head for the hospital. There’s a lot of space between them, but you know how fast Daisybell came.”

“I’ll grab you some clothes to change into Mel,” Sharon tells her before she darts off, and Melinda’s reminded she’s in the Santa Clause pajamas that match Daisy’s.

“Mama, are you okay?” Daisy looks concerned, coming to tap on her knee, and Melinda nodded, helping her up onto the couch.

“I’m more than okay, baby. We’re gonna meet your little sister today,” Melinda tells her, and Daisy’s eyes widen comically. “So you stay here with your grandmas and your aunts, and Daddy and Aunt Sharon will come with me, and when she’s here, you can come visit me, okay? You keep doing Christmas, for me.”

“Are you sure Mommy? I can wait for you and baby sister to come back,” Daisy said eagerly, and Melinda smiled, kissing her little girl’s forehead.

“No, you and Grandma Julie and Grandma Lian and Maria and Bobbi should open all your presents- how about you save mine and Daddy’s, and you can bring them when you come to visit? We’ll open them together,” Melinda tells her, and Daisy nods enthusiastically.

Sharon returns with a pair of loose black pants and a dark red long-sleeved top, and Phil walks with her to the bathroom where he helps her change- he holds her when the first real contraction hits, and she’s panting by the time they get her dressed. Melinda opens her mouth to speak, but Phil speaks first.

“Your bag is packed, I grabbed extra nursing bras because you were worried, one of your gifts was a Christmas outfit for the baby so I opened it and packed it in your bag, and I slid It’s A Wonderful Life in there for later,” he tells her, and Melinda cups his cheeks, kissing him softly.

“I love you so much,” she whispers, kissing him again and feeling his lips curve into a smile against hers.

“Let’s go have a baby,” he replies, stroking her cheek softly, and she beams.

_

“You don’t have to stay, Sharon,” Melinda tells her- it’s been four hours and she’s already exhausted. Phil had helped her put her hair back in a ponytail, and sweat beads her forehead as she tries to focus on the puzzle she and Phil are working on as a way of distraction.

“I want to! I missed Daisy being born, I want to be here for my second niece’s birth,” Sharon replies, fitting another piece in place. “So, why the puzzle?”

“It helps keep me focused,” Melinda tells her, wincing and reaching for Phil’s hand.

“We did a Star Wars one while she was in labor with Daisy,” Phil tells her, stroking Melinda neck as she exhaled slowly. “We went with Mulan this time, Daisy’s obsessed.”

“She’s excited about being a big sister,” Sharon observes, and Melinda’s face softens as she nods, looking up at Phil.

“We wanted to wait a little longer- wait until Daisy was 5 before we had another one, but clearly the universe had other plans,” she tells her with a snort, stroking over the side of her stomach. “But she can’t wait to be a big sister- which I’m sure will wear off when there’s a baby screaming at 3 in the morning and waking her up.”

Sharon looks at them, chin in her hand as she looked at them with a smile.

“You two are really good parents, you know,” she tells them, drawing twin smiles from the two of them as Melinda reaches for Sharon with her free hand.

“And you’re a really good aunt,” Melinda tells her, squeezing her hand before she winced, straightening up and leaning into Phil. “That was only four minutes, they’re getting closer.”

“I’ll grab a nurse,” Sharon says, hopping up, and Phil moves the table with the puzzle away from the bed, coming to stand Melinda and rub her back.

“You ready to meet her?” he asks, and Melinda nods, pulling at him until he kissed her, letting her gasp against his mouth. “I love you.”

He kisses her again. “I love you too. You’re the strongest woman I know.”

They both look up at the knock on the door, and in walks in the nurse.

“Alright Coulson family! Who’s ready to have a baby?”

_

“She’s so tiny Mama,” Daisy whispers in awe, sitting in Melinda’s hospital bed and gazing down at her little sister.

“You were this tiny once,” she reminds Daisy, letting her rest her head on her arm, her tiny hand stroking her little sister’s fingers.

“Does she have a name?” Maria asks, arm wrapped Bobbi’s shoulders as the blonde leaned into her, head on her shoulder. Melinda looked up at Phil, who smiled and nodded.

“We named her Eve,” she answers, and Daisy beams.

“Like Christmas Eve, Mama!” she exclaims, and Melinda nods as Eve squirms in her arms, face scrunching as she stretches her arms up and yawns.

“Yes baby. Just like that,” she agrees, feeling Phil kiss her temple, and she doesn’t even care that she’s gross-looking and sore and exhausted. Her girls are in her arms, her husband was by her side, and her family was gathered in her room.

“She’s quite the Christmas gift,” Julie says, and Melinda offers her the infant to hold. The redhead takes her happily, snuggling her with a beaming grin on her face.

Melinda rested her head against Phil’s waist, hand twined with his on her shoulder as Daisy pressed against her side, warm and sleepy and mumbling about how they brought their presents. Melinda stroked her daughter’s hair, letting her drift and listening to Maria and Bobbi chat with Lian and Julie. She closes her eyes, but smiles when Phil bends to whisper in her ear.

“When you agreed to spend Christmas as my fake girlfriend six years ago, did you ever expect to end up here?” he murmurs, and Melinda blinks her eyes open to look at him, reaching a hand up to cup his cheek.

“No. But I’ve never been happier to be wrong,” she whispers, thumb stroking his skin as she smiled. “Merry Christmas, Phil.”

“Merry Christmas, Lin,” he whispers back, kissing her softly.

Daisy shifted beside her, and Eve whimpered softly in the background, and she’d never felt more joyful in her entire life.


End file.
